Does Sars-CoV-2 come from bats? At least that’s what new findings suggest. Researchers from the Pasteur Institute in Paris have found three virus types in bats in Laos that have almost 97 percent genome correspondence with the pandemic virus.
In your study, published in the journal Nature, the researchers explain that they took saliva, faeces and urine samples from a total of 645 bats and examined them. They found the viruses that are so similar to SARS-CoV-2 in three species of horseshoe bats.
The virus type called Banal-52 has 96.8 percent of the same genetic makeup as SARS-CoV-2. In an attempt, it was possible to infect human cells with the virus.
According to the scientists, what is particularly striking is the similarity of the receptor binding domain with which SARS-CoV-2 binds to human receptors in order to enter the cell. This had previously puzzled scientists because it had never been detected in a virus before.
Other scientists had previously discovered Sars-CoV-2 related viruses in Thailand, Cambodia and China. The region is now considered a hotspot for corona viruses.
It is still unclear how the virus got to the markets in Wuhan, where the first human infections were detected. Numerous researchers are currently working to clarify these questions by collecting samples and data from bats and raccoon dogs.