Arrival COVID-19 took us by surprise. In fact, we continue to pay the consequences of this lowering of our vigilance. For this reason, it is important to keep an eye on places where new viruses can appear that can lead to pandemics. One of the largest reservoirs of disease-causing viruses, especially coronaviruses, are bats, so scientists around the world take samples of viruses isolated from their bodies. And that’s how they discovered Hosta-2a virus belonging to the same subgenus as SARS-CoV-2 that has given us so many headaches.
Responsible for the discovery is a group of scientists belonging to Washington State University, Paul G. Allen School of Global Health. According to a study published in PLOS pathogens, the first thing they did was test to see if they could infect humans. And, unfortunately, they saw that it has the ability to enter our cells. In addition, existing vaccines appear to be ineffective against them.
For this reason, these investigators recommend that instead of working hard to develop vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 variants, effective alternatives against sarbecovirus. That is, against the subgenre to which both the COVID-19 case and Khosta-2 belong.
Coronavirus with the right key
Hosta-2, like Hosta-1, isolated from Russian bats in 2020. At first it seemed that they were not capable of infecting people, so they did not cause concern. That year we had enough of what we had.
However, over time, Hosta-2 was found to have the ability to enter our cells. This is bad news, but what exactly does this mean?
The key is in spike protein, which we have heard so much about in connection with the coronavirus COVID-19. This protein is the key that viruses use to enter their host cells. In turn, the cells have different receptors, which are like a lock to which this key fits. The spike protein Host-2 has been shown to fit into ACE2 receptors, which are exactly the same as SARS-CoV-2. This means that they can enter our cells. And perhaps it could also mean that the vaccines that have been developed against COVID-19 may be effective against it. Eventually, these vaccines induce the production of antibodies against the spike protein.
The problem is that while they may correspond to the same lock, the spike proteins of both viruses are not exactly the same. They couldn’t be sure, so they had to check. First, they exposed the virus to samples serum from people vaccinated against COVID-19. This means that they exposed the virus to antibodies that were synthesized against SARS-CoV-2. Unfortunately, they failed to neutralize the virus.
There was still hope that naturally synthesized antibodies might be more effective. Therefore, the process was repeated with the serum of people who had undergone infection with Omicron variant. Again, no result.
Two bad news and two good
So far we have only bad news. On the one hand, that Khosta-2 can penetrate into human cells. On the other hand, the vaccines we have against the COVID-19 coronavirus are ineffective.
However, these scientists also considered the two pieces of news optimistic. First, although it can enter cells, it lacks some of the genes that could provide human pathogenicity. It is useless for a virus to be able to enter cells if it is not able to take control of our replication mechanism and start making copies with it. And he doesn’t seem to be able to do it.
Besides, the latest good news is more of a reflection. At that time they arrived on time. The virus was discovered before it infected people, so science can anticipate its movements. Instead of taking this news as something apocalyptic, we should be glad that, little by little, we are learning to track some of the viruses that surround us. If the methods used to do this continue to improve and funding continues, perhaps the next epidemic will not take us by surprise. Who knows? It may even be possible to prevent it from becoming a pandemic.
Source: Hiper Textual
