Around two and a half years after the outbreak of the corona pandemic, a newly discovered bat virus called Khosta-2 is causing concern. US researchers from Washington State University warn in one Study from the pathogen they found in Russian horseshoe bats. The virus has “disturbing features”.
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What exactly is the bat virus?
Khosta-2 belongs to the same subcategory of coronaviruses as Sars-CoV-2 and is known as sarbecovirus. “Genetically, these strange viruses from Russia looked like some of the others that had been discovered elsewhere in the world,” said virologist Michael Letko, who contributed to the study. in a message. Already discovered in two species of horseshoe bats at the end of 2020, the two new corona viruses have so far been considered harmless.
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What are the dangers of Khosta-2?
However, new research found that the bat virus can infect human cells. Just like Sars-CoV-2, Khosta-2 has the ability to dock to the ACE2 receptor protein, which is found on all human cells. “We were really surprised that this virus can infect human cells,” Letko explained.
Photo: dpa/LBV/Rudolf Leitl
If humans were infected, the Khosta-2 coronavirus would still be harmless due to missing gene segments. According to the scientists, the human immune system can quickly recognize these viruses and render them harmless before symptoms of the disease appear.
The great danger is a recombination of the animal virus with Sars-CoV-2. This could have devastating consequences by forming a new type of disease-causing mixed virus. The researchers regard such a double infection in both humans and animals as a thoroughly realistic scenario.
In laboratory tests, the virus also proved to be resistant to antibodies and Covid-19 vaccines. According to the virologist Letko, the findings made it clear the need to develop universal vaccines to protect against as yet undiscovered variants of Sars-CoV-2.