Discovered 3 new corona viruses in bats that can be harmful to humans

Scientists have just discovered three new viruses in bats in the north of Laos, with genomes similar to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that can infect humans.

On February 16, a study by scientists at the National University of Laos, the Pasteur Institute of Laos and the University of Paris (France) published in the journal Nature said that scientists detected three viruses. new corona, similar to SARS-CoV-2 can infect human cells.

Three new viruses named BANAL-103, BANAL-236 and BANAL-52 have been detected in bats in the north of Laos. They have a genome similar to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 in the "critical region of the spike protein - the part that allows the virus to enter the host cell". This finding helps strengthen the hypothesis that the COVID-19 epidemic originated in animals.

Scientists have discovered that some corona viruses in bats can be harmful to humans.

Scientists using different techniques, including crystallography and computational molecular kinetics simulations, found that the way the three viruses entered cells was similar to that of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. .

Dr Marc Eloit, head of pathogen detection at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and co-author of the study, said: 'The discovery of these viruses in bat caves supports the hypothesis that the SARS-CoV virus. -2 may have originated from bats that lived in the large highlands of the Indochinese Peninsula'. He said that the research results show that the three viruses mentioned above can also be harmful to human health.

Chinese scientists also announced the discovery of a strain of corona virus originating from bats called NeoCoV. This virus strain is the closest relative of the corona virus that causes the respiratory syndrome MERS-CoV. The NeoCoV virus is capable of infecting humans, so it should be considered a 'potential biological threat to humanity'.

Scientists around the world are still intensifying research on animal diseases. There are hundreds of types of coronaviruses, and they mostly spread among animals such as bats and rodents.