Tracing The Origin of Coronavirus In Bats And Pangolins

Scientists have said that across many parts of Asia, coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2 may be circulating in bats. At a wildlife sanctuary in eastern Thailand, a virus that is a close match to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, has been discovered in bats.

The scientists have predicted that related coronaviruses may be present in bats across many Asian nations and regions. This discovery extends the area in which related viruses have been found to a distance of 4,800km.

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‘Scientists have found coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2 circulating in bats across many parts of Asia and also pangolin virus that could potentially infect humans.’
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The study led by Lin-Fa Wang of the University of Singapore is published in the journal Nature Communications.

The scientists said that the sampling site (Thailand only) and the sampling size was small and limited but they are confident that coronaviruses "with a high degree of genetic relatedness to Sars-CoV-2 are widely present in bats across many nations and regions in Asia".

Previous studies have suggested that SARS-CoV-2 emerged in an animal, most likely a bat, before spreading to humans. However, the precise origin of the virus is not known and a team commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) have investigated the same.

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In the latest research, the scientists detected a close relative of SARS-CoV-2 in horseshoe bats kept in an artificial cave at a wildlife sanctuary in Thailand. The isolated virus, named RacCS203 showed 91.5% similarity in their genomes which is a close match to the genetic code of SARS-CoV-2.

Another coronavirus called RmYN02 found in bats in Yunnan, China showed 93.6% similarity to the genome of SARS-CoV-2.

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Scientists from Singapore, China, US, Australia and Thailand also looked at the antibodies in the bats and in a trafficked pangolin in southern Thailand. Pangolins are scaly anteaters. They found that the antibodies were able to neutralize the pandemic virus, which further provided evidence that SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses are circulating in Southeast Asia.

Further, the scientists compared the structures of the spike proteins found on SARS-CoV-2 and a coronavirus isolated from Malayan pangolins which were seized by authorities after being smuggled to China. It was found that the pangolin virus was able to bind to receptors from both pangolins and humans. This is a different characteristic when compared to the bat coronavirus, which could not effectively bind with human or pangolin receptors.

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Co-lead author of the study, Antoni Wrobel, postdoctoral training fellow in the Structural Biology of Disease Processes Laboratory at the Crick said, “By testing if the spike protein of a given virus can bind with cell receptors from different species, we're able to see if, in theory, the virus could infect this species. Importantly here, we've shown two key things. Firstly, that this bat virus would unlikely be able to infect pangolins. And secondly that a pangolin virus could potentially infect humans."

The scientists are continuing their examination of the spikes of SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses, including other bat viruses, to better understand the mechanisms of infection and evolution.

Source-Medindia