Despite the fact that the world continues to wage the biggest health battle against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, including the sub-variant called ‘Silent Omicron’, a team of scientists from Wuhan, place of origin of the current pandemic, this is , where the first case of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 occurred, have detected a new type of coronavirus that could be “deadlier” than the current one. At the moment, the new coronavirus is under study.
According to the study, which is in preprint and therefore not yet peer-reviewed , the NeoCoV variant is a type of coronavirus originally discovered in South Africa. It is not a variant of the coronavirus resulting from mutations, but a strain of coronavirus related to the Middle East respiratory syndrome or MERS-coronavirus, where, in the past, there have been outbreaks in several countries in the Middle East.
Two of the factors that have set off the alarms of Chinese scientists are: that it has a high mortality rate and a high transmission rate.
There is no precedent for it to exist in humans. At this time, NeoCoV is only known to spread among bats, but many wonder if it can be transmitted to humans. According to the Wuhan researchers, the answer is yes. And in this case, it would be very dangerous for human life.
Associated with the MERS-CoV virus, it was discovered in outbreaks in Middle Eastern countries in 2012 and 2015 and is similar to SARS-CoV-2, which causes the coronavirus in humans.
NeoCoV was identified in a population of bats in South Africa, spreading exclusively among these animals. However, as stated on BioRxiv, its close relative PDF-2180-CoV can infect humans. According to researchers from Wuhan University and the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, only one mutation is required for the virus to infiltrate human cells.
According to Chinese scientists, neither the antibodies generated by the coronavirus nor vaccination against COVID-19 could protect the human body against NeoCov.
“NeoCoV cannot be cured with antibodies or protein molecules produced by people with respiratory diseases, ” the researchers explain in their study, which is awaiting peer review.
The virus is zoonotic, which means that it is transmitted from animals to humans by direct or indirect contact. MERS-CoV has been identified in camels in several countries in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. In total, 27 countries have reported cases since 2012, resulting in 858 known deaths due to infection and related complications.
The main symptoms of MERS include fever, cough and shortness of breath, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Referencia: Close relatives of MERS-CoV in bats use ACE2 as their functional receptors
Qing Xiong, Lei Cao, Chengbao Ma, Chen Liu, Junyu Si, Peng Liu, Mengxue Gu, Chunli Wang, Lulu Shi, Fei Tong, Meiling Huang, Jing Li, Chufeng Zhao, Chao Shen, Yu Chen, Huabin Zhao, Ke Lan , Xiangxi Wang, Huan Yan
BIORXIV, the preprinter service for biology doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.24.477490
