Khosta-2: Russian Bat Virus Could Spark the Next Pandemic

[Celerity]

Lab tests suggest the Khosta-2 virus thrives in human cells and is resistant to current coronavirus vaccines. We need better jabs to fight new animal viruses.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/terrifying-khosta-2-russian-bat-virus-could-spark-the-next-pandemic



The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t over. In fact, it shows signs of lingering for, well, a long time. But even as politicians and health authorities struggle with how, if at all, to keep addressing the current pandemic, scientists are already anticipating the next one. They’re scouring the planet for animal viruses that, like SARS-CoV-2, could leap to the human population and cause serious disease on a global scale. They just found one. And it’s nasty.

In 2020, a team of Russian scientists collected a few horseshoe bats in Sochi National Park in southern Russia. The Russians identified, in those bats, a new virus they called Khosta-2. Behaviorally, the virus seemed to have a lot in common with SARS-CoV-2. Two years later, a separate team—including scientists from Washington State University and Tulane University—tested Khosta-2 along with another newly-discovered Russian bat virus, hoping to determine whether they’re capable of infecting people. And, if so, whether our antibodies stand any chance of stopping them.

The initial results, which the team described in a new peer-reviewed study that appeared last week in the science journal PLOS Pathogens, are worrying. The second bat virus didn’t seem all that infectious. But Khosta-2, on the other hand, took a liking to human cells. “We tested how well the spike proteins from these bat viruses infect human cells under different conditions,” the scientists wrote. “We found that the spike from the virus Khosta-2 could infect [the] cells, similar to human pathogens using the same entry mechanisms.”

Equally troubling, Khosta-2 proved “resistant to neutralization by serum from individuals who had been vaccinated for SARS-CoV-2.” In other words, our bodies’ defenses against COVID-19 might not protect us from a hypothetical disease caused by Khosta-2. The implications are clear. We’d need better antibodies to beat Khosta-2. “Our findings highlight the urgent need to continue development of new, and broader-protecting … vaccines,” the scientists behind the new study wrote.

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[Sky Jewels]

1. A Russian virus? Say it ain't so! How will Dear Leader blame "Gye-na" for this one?

But, seriously ... fuuuuuck.

[tanyev]

2. From here on out I'm always keeping a supply of N95s in the house.

[Sympthsical]

3. Ooft, another ACE2 virus

So it will also enjoy our lungs and wreck our circulatory system if it gets in.

I saw some interesting research the other day on glycans and how targeting them can screw with how the proteins fold in Covid spikes. By flicking at specific ones, they can inhibit the virus' ability to infect cells. Something down the road, perhaps.

Also, the entire research team looked like they were about 14 years old.