{"id":161115,"date":"2025-06-05T20:25:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T20:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/161115\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T20:25:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T20:25:15","slug":"new-virus-discovered-in-china-is-one-small-step-away-from-triggering-a-pandemic-scientists-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/161115\/","title":{"rendered":"New virus discovered in China is ‘one small step’ away from triggering a pandemic, scientists warn"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dangerous new\u00a0coronavirus<\/a> discovered in China<\/a>\u00a0could spark the next pandemic, scientists warn.<\/p>\n

American researchers say the new\u00a0HKU5-CoV-2\u00a0virus is just one ‘small’ mutation away from being able to infect and cause outbreaks in humans.<\/p>\n

The discovery is causing alarm because the pathogen is closely related to MERS, a highly lethal virus that kills up to a third of those it infects.<\/p>\n

Adding to the controversy is the fact\u00a0HKU5 was\u00a0first documented in bats by researchers from the Chinese lab <\/a>where Covid is feared to have leaked from.<\/p>\n

For the latest study, a team from\u00a0Washington State<\/a>\u00a0University studied how the new pathogen interacts with human cells in lab experiments.<\/p>\n

Professor Michael Letko, a virologist at Washington State<\/a>\u00a0who co-led the study, said: ‘HKU5 viruses in particular really hadn’t been looked at much, but our study shows how these viruses infect cells.<\/p>\n

‘What we also found is HKU5 viruses may be only a small step away from being able to spill over into humans.’<\/p>\n

The findings reveal that a small change in the virus’s spike protein could enable it to bind to human ACE2 cells, which are found in people’s throats, mouths and noses.<\/p>\n

\"Using <\/p>\n

Using a combination of live virus testing, protein modeling, and AI simulations, the team mapped out how HKU5 could jump from bats to humans<\/p>\n

Researchers collected the HKU5-CoV-2 strain from a small subset of hundreds of bats swabbed across southern and eastern regions of China.<\/a><\/p>\n

It is currently only spreading in bats – but experts fear unregulated wildlife trade in China raises risk of spillover events.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

In their experiments, the researchers used gene-editing tools to create ‘pseudoviruses’, lab-made virus particles that include the HKU5 spike protein but are harmless and don’t replicate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These pseudoviruses were introduced to different types of cells,\u00a0some carrying bat ACE2 and others carrying human ACE2.<\/p>\n

The virus glowed green when it successfully entered and replicated inside a cell. Bat cells lit up brightly, showing HKU5 can easily infect them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Human cells, however, showed little response unless the virus carried specific mutations that improved its ability to latch onto ACE2.<\/p>\n

The results raise concern that if HKU5 jumps to an intermediate animal, such as mink or civets, it could acquire mutatations before reaching humans.<\/p>\n

The FBI and CIA believe COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was working with dangerous coronaviruses in the years leading up to the pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"HKU5 <\/p>\n

HKU5 was first discovered in 2005 in a species of bat called the Japanese house bat (Pipistrellus abramus), but only recently did scientists realize it can use ACE2, the same protein that allowed Covid-19 to enter human cells and infect millions worldwide<\/p>\n

Another theory points to a wet market, where dozens of animals were kept in squalid conditions, possibly serving as an intermediate host before the virus jumped to humans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new study published in the\u00a0Nature Communications<\/a>, focused on a lesser-known group of coronaviruses known as merbecoviruses, which includes HKU5 and MERS-CoV, the virus responsible for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MERS spreads from camels to humans and has a fatality rate of about 34 percent.<\/p>\n

To visualize the virus’s structure, scientists used cryo-electron microscopy, a high-resolution imaging method that allowed them to examine the spike protein in detail.<\/p>\n

They found that key parts of the spike remained in a ‘closed’ position, which makes infection more difficult, but not impossible.<\/p>\n

‘These viruses are so closely related to MERS, so we have to be concerned if they ever infect humans,’ Letko said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘While there’s no evidence they’ve crossed into people yet, the potential is there and that makes them worth watching.’<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, scientists in Wuhan<\/a> reported that\u00a0one strain of HKU5, Lineage 2, could already bind to human ACE2 receptors.<\/p>\n

That means it might infect human cells without needing to evolve further.<\/p>\n

Now, US researchers have broadened the investigation, studying the entire merbecovirus family, not just one strain, but dozens, including MERS-CoV and multiple HKU5 variants, to better understand their potential to infect human cells.<\/p>\n

Lineage 2 appears more immediately dangerous, already equipped to enter human cells.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But this new study reveals that several other type of HKU5 viruses may only be a few mutations away from doing the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dangerous new\u00a0coronavirus discovered in China\u00a0could spark the next pandemic, scientists warn. American researchers say the new\u00a0HKU5-CoV-2\u00a0virus is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1395,1433,92,8724,105,6506,261,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-161115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-coronavirus","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-fbi","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-saudi-arabia","14":"tag-sciencetech","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114632638558912880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}