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expert reaction to study looking at a different coronavirus detected in bats and pangolins in Southeast Asia

A study published in Nature Communications looks at evidence for SARS-CoV-2 related coronaviruses circulating in bats and pangolins in Southeast Asia.

 

Prof James Wood, Head of Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, said:

“This is an excellent study conducted by globally respected scientists which has added to our knowledge base of the range of coronaviruses that exist in horseshoe bats across SE Asia.  The work does not add to our understanding of the proximal origins of SARS-CoV-2 virus, but is another important building block in our understanding of the potential emergence of viral pathogens from bats.”

 

Prof Martin Hibberd, Professor of Emerging Infectious Disease, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:

“This paper from Lin-Fa Wang and collaborators, has identified a further bat coronavirus that is thought to be related to the SARS-CoV-2 strain currently causing the human pandemic.  This new finding is from Thailand, which emphasises the broad distribution of the bats and viruses that may include the originator of the current outbreak.  Intriguingly, this SARS-CoV-2 related coronavirus (named RacCS203) does not bind to the ACE2 receptor, despite generating SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibodies, and if it is related to an ancestor of SARS-CoV-2, may suggest an intermediate host (such as a pangolin) is required to gain the ACE2 binding capability.  Further work is required to understand how SARS-CoV-2 passed from animals to humans, with the recent WHO investigators in Wuhan showing that as of yet, these is no conclusive evidence of how this happened.”

 

 

‘Evidence for SARS-CoV-2 related coronaviruses circulating in bats and pangolins in Southeast Asia’ by Supaporn Wacharapluesadee et al. was published in Nature Communications on Tuesday 9 February 2021.

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21240-1

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21240-1

 

 

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19

 

 

Declared interests

None received.

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