Covid-like bat virus HKU5-CoV-2 found in Chinese lab in Wuhan

A new coronavirus in bats that could spread from animal-to-human one day has been discovered in China.

A new coronavirus in bats that could spread from animal-to-human one day has been discovered in China.

The new virus called HKU5-CoV-2 was found by a team of virologists led by Shi Zhengli, a scientist known as “Batwoman” for her work in coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute, The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports.

The Institute has been at the centre of the theory suggesting Covid-19 came from a lab leak which China denies.

The new virus has similarities to SARS CoV-2 - which sparked the world’s Covid-19 pandemic, as it includes a feature known as the furin cleavage site that helps it to enter cells via the ACE2 receptor protein on cell surfaces.

SARS-CoV-2 (yellow)—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19—isolated from a patient in the US, emerging from the surface of cells (blue/pink) cultured in the lab.

In a lab test, the team discovered HKU5-CoV-2 could infect human cell cultures in the mini-human organ models being tested on.

“Authentic HKU5-CoV-2 infected human ACE2-expressing cell lines and human respiratory and enteric organoids,” the Chinese team wrote in a paper published in the journal Cell.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology during the visit by the World Health Organisation (WHO) team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease.

“This study reveals a distinct lineage of HKU5-CoVs in bats that efficiently use human ACE2 and underscores their potential zoonotic risk,” they wrote.

As to whether the HKU5-CoV-2 virus could start another pandemic, it was still unclear.

Infectious disease expert Dr Michael Osterholm from the University of Minnesota said global reaction to the discovery was “overblown.”

The virus has not been detected in humans yet.

He said there is a lot of immunity in the population to similar SARS viruses now.