A Chinese research team has identified a new bat coronavirus that poses a potential risk of animal-to-human transmission due to its ability to use the same human receptor as the virus responsible for COVID-19.
The study was led by Shi Zhengli, a prominent virologist known as the “batwoman” for her extensive research on bat coronaviruses, at the Guangzhou Laboratory. She collaborated with researchers from the Guangzhou Academy of Sciences, Wuhan University, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Shi gained international attention for her work at the Wuhan Institute, which has been at the center of debates regarding the origins of COVID-19, with one theory suggesting it could have emerged from a lab leak. While the origins of the virus remain unconfirmed, some studies propose it originated in bats and was transmitted to humans through an intermediate animal host. Shi has denied any involvement of the Wuhan Institute in the outbreak.
The new discovery involves a lineage of the HKU5 coronavirus, first found in the Japanese pipistrelle bat in Hong Kong. This virus belongs to the merbecovirus subgenus, which includes the virus responsible for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
The virus can bind to the human angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE2) receptor, the same receptor used by SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19, to infect human cells.
“We report the discovery and isolation of a distinct lineage (lineage 2) of HKU5-CoV, which can utilize not only bat ACE2 but also human ACE2 and various mammalian ACE2 orthologs,” the researchers explained in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell.
The team found that the virus, isolated from bat samples, was capable of infecting human cells as well as lab-grown tissues resembling miniature respiratory and intestinal organs.
“Bat merbecoviruses pose a high risk of spillover to humans, either through direct transmission or facilitated by intermediate hosts,” the researchers warned.
HKU5-CoV-2 can bind to ACE2 receptors not only in humans but also in several other species, any of which could serve as intermediate hosts and potentially transmit the virus to humans.
The merbecovirus subgenus includes four distinct species—MERS-CoV, two bat coronaviruses, and one found in hedgehogs—and was added to the World Health Organization’s list of emerging pathogens for pandemic preparedness last year.
Earlier this month, Cell published a study from the University of Washington and Wuhan University that found while the HKU5 strain can bind to bat and mammalian ACE2 receptors, it did not demonstrate “efficient” binding to human receptors.
