NeoCov
NeoCoV virus: Wuhan scientists warn of new coronavirus strain with higher infection rate, fatality
Wuhan: Chinese scientists have warned that a strain of coronavirus has been discovered in South Africa which is potentially more transmissible and deadly, media reports said on Friday.
The scientists pressed the alarm at a time when the world is combating Omicron and Delta COVID-19 variants.
The NeoCoV virus, related to the Middle East respiratory syndrome MERS-CoV, linked with outbreaks in countries of the Middle East in 2012 and 2015, is not new. It is also similar in many ways to SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19 in humans, reports Sputnik news agency.
NeoCoV was found in a population of bats in South Africa and to date has spread exclusively among these animals. Yet the new study, not yet peer-reviewed and released in preprint on the bioRxiv website, unexpectedly discovered that NeoCoV and its close relative, PDF-2180-CoV, can use some types of bat Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and human ACE2 for entry, the Russian news agency reported.
As per the abstract released on bioRxiv website, conversely, NeoCoV efficiently infects human ACE2 expressing cells after a T510F mutation on the receptor-binding motif (RBM). Notably, the infection could not be cross-neutralized by antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2 or MERS-CoV.
"Our study demonstrates the first case of ACE2 usage in MERS-related viruses, shedding light on a potential bio-safety threat of the human emergence of an ACE2 using 'MERS-CoV-2' with both high fatality and transmission rate," read the website.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
