#merbecovirus

[scienza-magia]

HKU5-CoV il nuovo coronavirus trasmissibile

Un team cinese scopre un nuovo coronavirus trasmissibile all'uomo. Studio condotto sui pipistrelli da una famosa virologa di Wuhan. Un team cinese ha scoperto un nuovo coronavirus dei pipistrelli che comporta il rischio di trasmissione da animale a uomo perché utilizza lo stesso recettore umano del virus che causa il Covid-19. Lo studio, riporta il South China Morning Post, è stato guidato da Shi Zhengli, la virologa di spicco nota come la 'batwoman' per la sua vasta ricerca sui coronavirus dei pipistrelli, presso il Guangzhou Laboratory insieme a ricercatori della Guangzhou Academy of Sciences, della Wuhan University e del Wuhan Institute of Virology. Shi lavorava presso l'istituto di Wuhan, al centro della controversia sulle origini del Covid. Nonostante manchi ancora un consenso sull'origine del Covid-19, alcuni studi hanno suggerito un collegamento iniziale nei pipistrelli e che sia passato all'uomo tramite un ospite animale intermedio. Shi, inoltre, ha negato che l'istituto di Wuhan possa essere stato responsabile della pandemia. L'ultima scoperta è un nuovo lignaggio del coronavirus HKU5 identificato per la prima volta nel pipistrello giapponese a Hong Kong: proviene dal sottogenere del merbecovirus, che include il virus di sindrome respiratoria mediorientale (Mers).

Un laboratorio in Cina E' in grado di legarsi all'enzima di conversione dell'angiotensina umano, lo stesso recettore usato dal virus Sars-CoV-2, che causa il Covid-19, per infettare le cellule. "Segnaliamo la scoperta e l'isolamento di un lignaggio distinto (lignaggio 2) di HKU5-CoV, che può utilizzare non solo l'Ace2 del pipistrello, ma anche l'Ace2 umano e vari ortologhi dell'Ace2 dei mammiferi (geni trovati in specie diverse con un'origine comune)", hanno scritto i ricercatori in un articolo pubblicato martedì sulla rivista a revisione paritaria Cell. La scoperta ha fatto emergere che il virus, una volta isolato da campioni di pipistrello, poteva infettare cellule umane e masse di cellule o tessuti coltivati artificialmente che assomigliavano a organi respiratori o intestinali miniaturizzati. All'inizio di febbraio, Cell ha pubblicato un articolo di un team dell'Università di Washington a Seattle e dell'Università di Wuhan che ha concluso che, malgrado il ceppo HKU5 potesse legarsi ai recettori Ace2 dei pipistrelli e di altri mammiferi, non hanno rilevato un legame umano "efficiente". Ma il team di Shi ha affermato che l'HKU5-CoV-2 si è adattato meglio all'Ace2 umano rispetto al lignaggio 1 del virus e "potrebbe avere una gamma di ospiti più ampia e un potenziale maggiore di infezione interspecie". Per questo, è necessario un maggiore monitoraggio del virus, anche se la sua efficienza è risultata "significativamente inferiore" rispetto a quello del Covid-19 e che il "rischio di insorgenza di (HKU5-CoV-2) nelle popolazioni umane non dovrebbe essere esagerato". Read the full article

[darkmaga-returns]

I have been vaguely expecting news along these lines, right as President Trump is just getting started. The disruption would, I figured, either come in the form of war escalation or a “new virus of pandemic potential discovered in China.”

The Daily Mail, Newsweek, and other mainstream papers are reporting that Zheng-Li Shi & and her Wuhan Institute of Virology team have just published a paper in CELL titled. "Bat-infecting merbecovirus HKU5-CoV lineage 2 can use human ACE2 as a cell entry receptor."

Same bat lady (Zheng-Li Shi), same bat place (Wuhan Institute of Virology).

The other thing I’ve been vaguely predicting is that, because the stupid U.S. government never took vigorous action to discipline ANYONE involved in the creation of SARS-CoV-2, it taught all of the actors involved that they can do whatever they want with impunity.

As for the reality of HKU5-CoV lineage 2: the McCullough Foundation will carefully examine the paper ASAP. For now, I am not seeing anything about the identification of an intermediate animal host, which we would expect in the case of a SARS coronavirus evolving from bats to infect humans. Note that no intermediate animal host was ever identified in the case of SARS-CoV-2.

[etarragof]

¡¡¡Un nuevo coronavirus que viene de China!! ¿QUÉ HAY DE CIERTO?

02 marzo 2025

Son varios los medios de comunicación que han lanzado en los últimos días una enésima advertencia sobre una peligrosa nueva COVID19 que viene desde China. Hoy dejo aquí una aclaración sobre el asunto que cierra la puerta a todas esas especulaciones, pero conviene recordar que a finales del 2019 también se menospreció la virulencia de la COVID19  que luego resulto de consecuencias fatales para toda la humanidad. Añadiré que yo, por precaución, aún sigo llevando mascarilla FFP2 cuando entro en establecimientos cerrados por especial deseo/consejo de mi neumóloga.

__________________________________________________

El ECDC descarta que el nuevo coronavirus identificado en murciélagos pueda transmitirse a humanos

Newsroom Infobae25/2/2025 El Centro Europeo para la Prevención y el Control de Enfermedades (ECDC, por sus siglas en inglés) ha asegurado que no hay pruebas de que el nuevo coronavirus identificado por un grupo de investigadores chinos en murciélagos pueda transmitirse a los humanos. Según el estudio publicado en la revista científica 'Cell', un equipo de investigadores de China ha aislado e investigado un nuevo coronavirus (merbecovirus BtHKU5-CoV-2) de murciélagos, no obstante el ECDC considera que por el momento no existen pruebas de que pueda transmitirse a personas. Para el ECDC, aunque el estudio aporta "valiosos datos de caracterización en laboratorio sobre la capacidad del virus para unirse a los receptores ACE2 humanos", no puede considerarse una prueba de infección o riesgo de transmisión en humanos. "De hecho, los propios autores advierten del peligro de exagerar la importancia de sus resultados", añaden desde el Centro. En este sentido el ECDC ha explicado que muchos coronavirus y virus de la gripe de origen animal pueden replicarse en células humanas; sin embargo, su replicación en un laboratorio "no significa necesariamente que estos virus puedan transmitirse con éxito de animales a humanos, o entre humanos". "Hay muchos otros factores que influyen en la capacidad de un virus para infectar a los humanos. Sin embargo, lo que estos hallazgos ponen de relieve es la necesidad de una vigilancia continua de los coronavirus y otros patógenos con potencial pandémico", han detallado desde el ECDC. En este punto, el Centro Europea ha destacado que vigila constantemente la situación epidemiológica y virológica en relación con los virus respiratorios, al tiempo que ha invitado visitar el Resumen Europeo de Vigilancia de los Virus Respiratorios (ERVISS, por su siglas en inglés) para consultar los datos más recientes sobre el Covid-19, el virus respiratorio sincitial y la gripe estacional.

Fuente: https://www.infobae.com/america/agencias/2025/02/25/el-ecdc-descarta-que-el-nuevo-coronavirus-identificado-en-murcielagos-pueda-transmitirse-a-humanos/

[didanawisgi]

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.03.583237v1.full?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1DhwiJmVI3KccrBa5RIg9oHjzBvg9xlYZKYiGf2EOQ1euNAg-i6T3DUBI_aem_KgjScIGNytzwEXmfN0X6uA

Engineering customized viral receptors for various coronaviruses

Summary

Coronaviruses display versatile receptor usage, yet in-depth characterization of coronaviruses lacking known receptor identities has been impeded by the absence of feasible infection models1,2. Here, we developed an innovative strategy to engineer functional customized viral receptors (CVRs). The modular design relies on building receptor frameworks comprising various function modules and generating specific epitope-targeting viral binding domains. We showed the key factors for CVRs to efficiently facilitate spike cleavage, membrane fusion, pseudovirus entry, and authentic virus propagation for various coronaviruses, resembling their native receptors. Applying this strategy, we delineated the accessible receptor binding epitopes for functional SARS-CoV-2 CVR design and elucidated the mechanism of entry supported by an amino-terminus domain (NTD) targeting S2L20-CVR. Furthermore, we created CVR-expressing cells for assessing antibodies and inhibitors against 12 representative coronaviruses from six subgenera, most of which lacking known receptors. Notably, a pan-sarbecovirus CVR supported entry of various sarbecoviruses, as well as propagation of a replicable HKU3 pseudovirus and the authentic strain RsHuB2019A3. Through combining an HKU5-specific CVR with reverse genetics, we successfully rescued and cultured wild-type and fluorescence protein-incorporated HKU5, a receptor-unidentified merbecovirus. Our study demonstrated the great potential of CVR strategy in establishing native receptor-independent infection models, paving the way for studying various viruses that are challenging to culture due to the lack of susceptible cells.

[news365timesindia]

[ad_1] A newly identified bat coronavirus, named HKU5-CoV-2, has been discovered in China and could potentially be transmitted from animals to humans, similar to the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. This virus was found by a team of virologists led by Shi Zhengli, known as “Batwoman” for her extensive research on coronaviruses, particularly at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been at the center of lab leak theories—though China has denied these allegations. The new virus shares similarities with SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19, as it can invade human cells through ACE2 receptors in much the same way. HKU5-CoV-2 is part of the merbecovirus subgenus, which includes the MERS virus. It was found to bind to human ACE2 receptors, making it comparable to SARS-CoV-2 and NL63, a common cold virus. In laboratory tests, the virus successfully infected human cell cultures and mini-organ models. The research indicates that bat coronaviruses like HKU5-CoV-2 pose a significant risk of spilling over into humans, either directly or through intermediate hosts. However, the researchers emphasize that more study is needed to determine whether the virus could actually jump to humans. The findings suggest that HKU5-CoV-2 has a stronger ability to bind to human ACE2 than other related viruses, which increases its potential for zoonotic transmission. Despite concerns about the possibility of a new pandemic, Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert, downplayed the fears, noting that there is now more immunity in the population against similar SARS viruses, which could reduce the risk of a pandemic. The study also suggests that HKU5-CoV-2 has a lower affinity for human ACE2 compared to SARS-CoV-2, and other factors indicate that the risk of this virus emerging in humans is lower than initially thought. [ad_2] Source link

[news365times]

[ad_1] A newly identified bat coronavirus, named HKU5-CoV-2, has been discovered in China and could potentially be transmitted from animals to humans, similar to the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. This virus was found by a team of virologists led by Shi Zhengli, known as “Batwoman” for her extensive research on coronaviruses, particularly at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been at the center of lab leak theories—though China has denied these allegations. The new virus shares similarities with SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19, as it can invade human cells through ACE2 receptors in much the same way. HKU5-CoV-2 is part of the merbecovirus subgenus, which includes the MERS virus. It was found to bind to human ACE2 receptors, making it comparable to SARS-CoV-2 and NL63, a common cold virus. In laboratory tests, the virus successfully infected human cell cultures and mini-organ models. The research indicates that bat coronaviruses like HKU5-CoV-2 pose a significant risk of spilling over into humans, either directly or through intermediate hosts. However, the researchers emphasize that more study is needed to determine whether the virus could actually jump to humans. The findings suggest that HKU5-CoV-2 has a stronger ability to bind to human ACE2 than other related viruses, which increases its potential for zoonotic transmission. Despite concerns about the possibility of a new pandemic, Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert, downplayed the fears, noting that there is now more immunity in the population against similar SARS viruses, which could reduce the risk of a pandemic. The study also suggests that HKU5-CoV-2 has a lower affinity for human ACE2 compared to SARS-CoV-2, and other factors indicate that the risk of this virus emerging in humans is lower than initially thought. [ad_2] Source link

[epifizz]

Covid - 19 'un MERS, SARS, Human ile bir ilgisi olabilri mi sence? Bu salgınlarda tedavi için kullanılanlar Covid - 19 için de kullanılamaz mı?

Covid-19 hastalığın adı; virüsün ismi SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV ile %86,9 benzerliğe sahiptir ve Sarbecovirus içerisinde yer alırlar, Merbecovirus olan MERS-CoV ile de betacoronovirus cinsi olarak aynı başlık altında birleşirler. SARS-Cov-2, RaTG13 ile %96,2 benzerlik gösterir ki virüsün kaynağının nal burunlu yarasa olduğunu düşündüren de budur.

Her ne kadar nükleotit homolojisi yakın olsa da bunlar farklı virüsler, ki burada verdiğim verilerden de anlayacağın üzere SARS-CoV-2′nin nükleotit dizilimi de zaten bilinmekte. Ancak söylediğim gibi yakın bile olsalar bunlar farklı virüsler ve immün sisteme bu yüzden ikisini de ayrı ayrı tanıtmak gerekiyor.

[didanawisgi]

Discovery of a novel merbecovirus cDNA clone contaminating agricultural rice sequencing datasets from Wuhan, China Abstract

HKU4-related coronaviruses are a group of betacoronaviruses belonging to the same merbecovirus subgenus as Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), which causes severe respiratory illness in humans with a mortality rate of over 30%. The high genetic similarity between HKU4-related coronaviruses and MERS-CoV makes them an attractive subject of research for modeling potential zoonotic spillover scenarios. In this study, we identify a novel coronavirus contaminating agricultural rice RNA sequencing datasets from Wuhan, China. The datasets were generated by the Huazhong Agricultural University in early 2020. We were able to assemble the complete viral genome sequence, which revealed that it is a novel HKU4-related merbecovirus. The assembled genome is 98.38% identical to the closest known full genome sequence, Tylonycteris pachypus bat isolate BtTp-GX2012. Using in silico modeling, we identified that the novel HKU4-related coronavirus spike protein likely binds to human dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4), the receptor used by MERS-CoV. We further identified that the novel HKU4-related coronavirus genome has been inserted into a bacterial artificial chromosome in a format consistent with previously published coronavirus infectious clones. Additionally, we have found a near complete read coverage of the spike gene of the MERS-CoV reference strain HCoV-EMC/2012, and identify the likely presence of a HKU4-related-MERS chimera in the datasets. Our findings contribute to the knowledge of HKU4-related coronaviruses and document the use of a previously unpublished HKU4 reverse genetics system in apparent MERS-CoV related gain-of-function research. Our study also emphasizes the importance of improved biosafety protocols in sequencing centers and coronavirus research facilities.