A Covid-like virus lurking in Russian bats could spread to humans, scientists warned today.
American virologists who have conducted experiments on the pathogen called Khosta-2 fear it is “completely resistant” to vaccines used during the pandemic.
They found that it could easily attach itself to human cells in the same way as the Covid virus.
Experts close to the Russian government only admitted the existence of Khosta-2 last May.
Nevertheless, the never-before-seen pathogen was detected in bat samples collected between March and October 2020.
Virologists trusted to conduct experiments on the pathogen – dubbed Khosta-2 – fear it is “completely resistant” to vaccines used during the pandemic (stock).
Researchers at the Gamaleya National Research Center, a branch of Moscow’s Health Ministry, said they were conducting “ongoing surveillance” of bats living in Sochi National Park.
The 480,000 hectare park with hundreds of caves is located on the outskirts of the city of the same name, which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Khosta-2 is classified as a sarbecovirus, a branch of the coronavirus family tree.
Little is known about it other than being a distant relative of SARS-CoV-2 – the strain behind Covid.
Washington State University researchers decided to run tests on the virus in hopes of learning more.
dr Stephanie Seifert and colleagues also experimented with Khosta-1 – an extremely similar virus detected in the same original samples.
Tests showed that Khosta-2 was able to infect human cells in a nearly identical manner to SARS-CoV-2.
With a spike-like protein on its surface, the virus hooks onto an entry enzyme found on the outside of human cells called ACE-2.
The process is often compared to inserting a key into a lock.
Researchers at the Gamaleya National Research Center, a branch of Moscow’s Health Ministry, said they were conducting “ongoing surveillance” of bats living in Sochi National Park
Although it was able to attach itself to human cells in this way, experts concluded that it wasn’t as efficient at doing so as SARS-CoV-2 – which some scientists believe has evolved into a more contagious one than measles .
Experiments also tested whether Covid vaccines or drugs could destroy it if it ever spread to humans (a process known as zoonosis).
It was “completely resistant” to an antibody drug made by Eli Lilly.
Khosta-2 also appeared “resistant” to two doses of Moderna and Pfizer syringes, lab work found.
dr However, Seifert and colleagues said it was “still possible” that natural Covid immunity – or possibly even that acquired through vaccines – could stave off the virus.
The results of the experiment were published in PLoS Pathogens.
The team conceded in the journal that the majority of the “hundreds” discovered sarbecoviruses are “unable” to infect humans.
However, they added that their findings show they “pose a threat to global health” and “highlight the urgent need” to develop universal coronavirus vaccines.
“The zoonotic spread of sarbecoviruses has led to the emergence of highly pathogenic human viruses,” scientists wrote.
They pointed to SARS-CoV-2 as an example, as it was behind “the largest global pandemic in modern history.”
“Researchers around the world are accelerating the pace of virus discovery efforts and expanding sequence databases with new circulating animal sarbecoviruses.
“While some experiments have been conducted with the new viruses, some remain untested and therefore their ability to transmit to humans is unknown.”
dr Seifert and his team added: “SARS-CoV-2 can infect a wide range of species and has now returned to both wild and domesticated animals.
“Many animal species carry their own coronaviruses.
“As more sarbecoviruses are discovered in larger geographic regions, the risk of new recombinant (hybrid) viruses increases.”
This, they warned, “opens the possibility of new human-compatible sarbecoviruses.”
