Chinese Bats May Be Carrying the Next SARS Pandemic

[Orangesapples 1,954]

This is from 2013:

 

https://www.wired.com/2013/10/bats-next-sars-pandemic/

 

IN NOVEMBER 2002, a deadly new virus emerged suddenly in the south of China. In less than a year, the disease it caused, known as SARS, spread to 33 countries, sickening more than 8,000 people and killing more than 700. Then it disappeared. Now, researchers say, they have for the first time isolated a closely related virus from bats in China that can infect human cells. "This shows, that right now in China, there are bats carrying a virus that can directly infect people, and cause another SARS pandemic," says Peter Daszak, one of the authors and president of EcoHealth Alliance in New York City.

 

 

Scientists have long suspected bats to be the natural reservoir for coronaviruses such as the one responsible for SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). The animals have been identified as the source of many dangerous viruses, such as Nipah and Hendra, and have also been linked to Ebola and the new coronavirus causing a SARS-like illness, dubbed MERS. In 2005, Daszak and others found viral DNA closely resembling the SARS virus in three species of Chinese horseshoe bats. However, while the sequences of those viral genomes were 88% to 92% identical with that of the SARS coronavirus, they showed marked differences in a region coding for the so-called spike protein. In the SARS virus, this protein binds to a receptor on the surface of human cells mediating its entry. The differences meant that the bat viruses would not be able to infect human cells. And because some palm civets were found to carry a virus almost identical to the human SARS virus, most researchers have come to believe that SARS spread from bats to civets—probably in a Chinese market, where these and other animals come into close contact—and then to humans.

Now, new research suggests that civets may not be necessary to start a SARS pandemic. For more than a year, scientists from China, Australia, and the United States collected ####### swabs or fecal samples from horseshoe bats at a cave in Kunming, in the south of China. They found coronavirus RNA in 27 of 117 sampled animals. Among the viruses were two new strains of coronavirus that resemble the SARS strain more closely than those previously identified in bats, especially in the part of the genome coding for the important spike protein. The scientists also managed to isolate live virus from one of the animals. In experiments, reported online today in Nature, they showed that the virus infected pig and bat kidney cells, and perhaps more important, cells lining the human lung.

The new results cannot resolve whether the original SARS virus moved directly from bats into humans or via an intermediate host, says Columbia University virologist Ian Lipkin, who was not involved in the work. But it shows that a similar coronavirus "has the potential to infect people without an intermediate host."

[Steeleballz 7,550]

    

      IIRC, there are 1000+ species of bats throughout the world. Chances are there are a whole lot of SARS like Coronaviruses out there. The one thing they recognized and tried to put a stop to after the 2003 outbreak was the wild meat markets. Maybe it's time to get serious with that. Probably the easiest thing to decrease the risk of these pandemics is quit messing around with live bats so much.  

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

5 minutes ago, Steeleballz said:

    

      IIRC, there are 1000+ species of bats throughout the world. Chances are there are a whole lot of SARS like Coronaviruses out there. The one thing they recognized and tried to put a stop to after the 2003 outbreak was the wild meat markets. Maybe it's time to get serious with that. Probably the easiest thing to decrease the risk of these pandemics is quit messing around with live bats so much.  

#BLM

[Steeleballz 7,550]

1 minute ago, Voice of Reason said:

#BLM

 

    Well, that's assuming we are not concerned about all the other species of animal that harbor SARS type Coronaviruses. There are also other interesting strains out there. There is a bovine Coronavirus that somehow acquired an influenza C hemagglutinin gene at some point. All kinds of crazy stuff going on.  

 

   They have been working on a prototype pandemic vaccine that would protect against every strain of influenza by targeting different components of the virus.  Hopefully they can apply what they have learned to Coronavirus and others too.  

[Orangesapples 1,954]

26 minutes ago, Steeleballz said:

 

    Well, that's assuming we are not concerned about all the other species of animal that harbor SARS type Coronaviruses. There are also other interesting strains out there. There is a bovine Coronavirus that somehow acquired an influenza C hemagglutinin gene at some point. All kinds of crazy stuff going on.  

 

   They have been working on a prototype pandemic vaccine that would protect against every strain of influenza by targeting different components of the virus.  Hopefully they can apply what they have learned to Coronavirus and others too.  

I've heard of that and I'm wondering, how far is a universal flu vaccine? And would a universal coronavirus vaccine protect against the common cold, too? It would be wonderful if we didn't have to worry about catching the flu or another cold, not that anti vaxxers wouldn't ruin it of course. 

[Steeleballz 7,550]

8 hours ago, Orangesapples said:

I've heard of that and I'm wondering, how far is a universal flu vaccine? And would a universal coronavirus vaccine protect against the common cold, too? It would be wonderful if we didn't have to worry about catching the flu or another cold, not that anti vaxxers wouldn't ruin it of course. 

 

  There are different approaches, but for influenza, they are targeting antigens that are common to all strains (or as many as possible) and not as variable to genetic drift. IIRC they have done some clinical trials on different vaccines already. One I read about was to a common antigen that all A influenza strains shared. It's just a matter of finding the right one that the immune system recognizes and can make a strong enough response that the virus can be destroyed or inhibited by the immune system. 

 

  Part of the difficulty is that it's a lot of work to identify different strains and then identify common targets and go through the whole process. I think it could be something to look at with Coronavirus. They have always recognized the severity of SARS type viruses, but now acknowledging that Coronavirus do have the potential to mutate into human transmissible forms probably takes that up a notch. SARS viruses are probably on the same risk level as the H5 and H7 avian strains now, so something even governments should be looking at working towards having a universal vaccine for.

 

  There are 4 different classes of Coronavirus that have been identified. The SARS types are in 1 class, and the 4 that cause common colds are in another class. There are 2 other classes that have only been identified in animals, IIRC. I think the priority would be looking at a vaccine for the SARS viruses, but if it could work for other classes that would be good.

 

  

[TBoneTX 45,966]

12 hours ago, Steeleballz said:

There are 4 different classes of Coronavirus

#5:  SARSaparilla