Scientists have discovered three viruses in bats in Laos, which are more similar to the virus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 than any other known virus. The study, posted on the pre-print server Research Square, has not yet been peer reviewed, showed that the similarity of parts of the new viruses’ genetic code with SARS-CoV-2 reinforces claims that COVID-19 has a natural origin. At the same time, their discovery means there are numerous coronaviruses with the potential to infect people, Nature reported. The finding is both “fascinating and quite terrifying,” David Robertson, a virologist at the University of Glasgow, was quoted as saying. (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02596-2)
According to researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and the National University in Laos, the new-found viruses contain receptor-binding domains that are almost identical to that of SARS-CoV-2, and can therefore infect human cells, Nature reported.
To find the virus, the team took saliva, feces and urine samples from 645 bats in caves in northern Laos. They found viruses in three horseshoe (Rhinolophus) bat species, which were each more than 95% identical to SARS-CoV-2. The new viruses have been named BANAL-52, BANAL-103 and BANAL-236, the report said.
Further, the scientist with the discovery of bats living in caves in Laos carrying a similar pathogen to COVID-19 suggests a natural spillover rather than a lab-leak.
“When SARS-CoV-2 was first sequenced, the receptor-binding domain didn’t really look like anything we’d seen before,” Edward Holmes, a virologist at the University of Sydney in Australia, was quoted as saying. That caused some people to speculate that the virus had been created in a laboratory. But the Laos coronaviruses confirm these parts of SARS-CoV-2 exist in nature, he said. “I am more convinced than ever that SARS-CoV-2 has a natural origin,” said Linfa Wang, a virologist at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. (https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-871965/v1)
