New danger coming! Covid-like VIRUS found in Russian BATS can INFECT humans, say researchers

NEW DELHI: The US researchers have detected a new Covid-like virus in Russian bats that could possibly infect humans and lead to serious health complications. According to a report published in the prestigious Time Magazine, the Khosta-2 virus, which belongs to the same sub-category of coronaviruses as SARS-CoV-2, is capable of infecting human cells.

This new virus can also evade the immunological defence provided by the vaccination, the report citing lead researchers said. The study, which was conducted by a team of researchers at Washington State University's Paul G Allen School for Global Health says that spike proteins in Khosta-2 may penetrate human cells while being resistant to both monoclonal antibodies and serum from people who have received the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. 

The researchers, who first discovered the virus in Russian bats in late 2020, identified two new viruses and named them Khosta-1 and Khosta-2. They determined that while Khosta-1 didn’t pose much threat to humans, Khosta-2 demonstrated some troubling traits.

Although the virus initially appeared to pose no threat to humans, when they looked more closely, they were “really surprised to find they could infect human cells”, Michael Letko, WSU virologist and one of the authors of the study, said in a press statement. 

The discovery highlights the need to develop universal vaccines against sarbecoviruses to protect the human population against future Covid-like pandemics, the researchers point out. 

Sarbecoviruses are respiratory viruses that frequently undergo recombination — a process of viral strains mixing to make a new strain. The findings of the study has been published in the journal 'PLOS Pathogens'.