(Adnkronos) – A team of scientists in China has discovered a new coronavirus that is transmissible from bats to humans because it uses the same human receptor as Covid-19. This is reported by the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. The study was led by virologist Shi Zhengli, known as “batwoman” for her work on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan laboratory. The laboratory widely accused of the Covid-19 leak. Five years ago today, the first case of coronavirus was officially registered in Italy at the Codogno hospital.
The Chinese scientists who discovered the new coronavirus stressed the need for careful monitoring of the virus, but still pointed out that its potency is “significantly lower” than that of Covid-19 and “the risk of Hku5-CoV-2 emerging in the human population should not be exaggerated.”
In any case, in an article in the journal Cell, the scientists “reported the discovery and isolation of a distinct lineage of HKU5-CoV that can use not only bat ACE2, but also human ACE2 and various mammalian ACE2 orthologues.” The researchers further noted that “bat merbecoviruses pose a high risk of spillover to humans, either through direct transmission or through intermediate hosts.”
