'A risk that should not be exaggerated': Coronavirus discovered in bats can infect human cells

Is there any reason to fear that HKU5-CoV-2 will one day be transmitted to humans? In addition to discovering this new coronavirus infecting bats , Chinese researchers have found that it uses the same protein as SARS-CoV-2, responsible for Covid-19, to enter human cells, we can read in a study published Tuesday, February 18 in the journal Cell .

According to the scientists, HKU5-CoV-2, like SARS-CoV-2, has a furin cleavage site. This helps it enter cells via a receptor protein called ACE2. Experiments conducted by the study authors reveal that human cells with high levels of this protein in test tubes, models of human intestines or airways were infected with this coronavirus.

There could therefore be a risk that HKU5-CoV-2 could one day be transmitted from bats to humans. But for the moment, no case of infection in humans has been identified.

Moreover, as the Chinese researchers themselves point out, this coronavirus does not penetrate human cells as easily as SARS-CoV-2 and other factors indicate that the risk of HKU5-CoV-2 "emerging in human populations should not be exaggerated". Laboratory experiments have also allowed them to identify monoclonal antibodies and antiviral drugs targeting the coronavirus.

Five years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic that has caused millions of deaths worldwide, fears of seeing a new catastrophe of the same order occur because of HKU5-CoV-2 are thus "excessive", estimates Dr Michael Osterholm, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Minnesota, to Reuters .

For Christian Jacob, former president of the Association of Microbiologists of Quebec quoted by Le Journal de Montréal , we must still continue to study this coronavirus: "Maybe it's not this one that will be (of great) importance, but if we find one in five years that has the same mechanism of action, by having studied it well, we will already have some possible solutions."