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New scientific paper uploaded to the pre-print server Biorxiv
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.01.073262v1
- Here's the main points:
Sars-Cov-2 (aka Wuhan coronavirus) samples resembles the LATE STAGE of Sars-cov-1 virus from 2002 , i.e. early Sars-cov-2 samples show it had already developed adaptation advantages for human transmission, whereas Sars-cov-1's innitial phase does not show such adaptations.
Sars-cov-2 is a sudden emergence of a highly infectious virus.
In a side-by-side comparison of evolutionary dynamics between the 2019/2020 SARS-CoV-2 and the 2003 SARS-CoV, we were surprised to find that SARS-CoV-2 resembles SARS-CoV in the late phase of the 2003 epidemic after SARS-CoV had developed several advantageous adaptations for human transmission.
--
Wuhan seafood market samples show they are similar to Sars-cov-2 isolates, so the virus entered the market in a human. If as popular opinion suggests the virus jumped from an animal - possibly a pangolin- to a human in the market the virus samples from the market would not be identical to Sars-cov-2 found in human isolates.
To look for clues regarding intermediate hosts, we analyze recent key findings relating to how SARS-CoV-2 could have evolved and adapted for human transmission, and examine the environmental samples from the Wuhan Huanan seafood market. Importantly, the market samples are genetically identical to human SARS-CoV-2 isolates and were therefore most likely from human sources.
----
The highly-infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus is most ideally adapted to infect human cells—rather than bat or pangolin cells, according to new computer modeling.
In a quest to find a vaccine or drug treatment for COVID-19, high-performance computer modeling has been used by Australian scientists to study the virus's ability to target a variety of 12 exotic and domestic animals in the hope of identifying the original source of the virus.
"The results clearly show that the COVID-19 virus is exquisitely adapted to infect humans," says Flinders University Professor Nikolai Petrovsky, lead author of a new paper just published online in arXiv, a leading US preprint server for researchers.
The study, led by Flinders University scientists, compared the modeling to the virus's ability to bind to human cells and found the SARS-CoV-2 virus targets humans more potently than any of the tested animal species.
"The virus's ability to bind protein on human cells was far greater than its ability to bind the same protein in bats, which argues against bats being a direct source of the human virus."
The team's computer modeling shows the SARS-CoV-2 virus also bound strongly to cells of pangolins, an exotic ant-eater illegally imported into China.
"While it has been suggested by some Chinese scientists that the COVID-19 virus might have been transmitted to humans from pangolins, currently available data does not support this idea," Professor Petrovsky says
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-covid-mystery.html
-------
The odds that this virus was an accidental release from a Chinese lab carrying out gain-of-function research on bat and pangolin coronaviruses just went up
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.01.073262v1
- Here's the main points:
Sars-Cov-2 (aka Wuhan coronavirus) samples resembles the LATE STAGE of Sars-cov-1 virus from 2002 , i.e. early Sars-cov-2 samples show it had already developed adaptation advantages for human transmission, whereas Sars-cov-1's innitial phase does not show such adaptations.
Sars-cov-2 is a sudden emergence of a highly infectious virus.
In a side-by-side comparison of evolutionary dynamics between the 2019/2020 SARS-CoV-2 and the 2003 SARS-CoV, we were surprised to find that SARS-CoV-2 resembles SARS-CoV in the late phase of the 2003 epidemic after SARS-CoV had developed several advantageous adaptations for human transmission.
--
Wuhan seafood market samples show they are similar to Sars-cov-2 isolates, so the virus entered the market in a human. If as popular opinion suggests the virus jumped from an animal - possibly a pangolin- to a human in the market the virus samples from the market would not be identical to Sars-cov-2 found in human isolates.
To look for clues regarding intermediate hosts, we analyze recent key findings relating to how SARS-CoV-2 could have evolved and adapted for human transmission, and examine the environmental samples from the Wuhan Huanan seafood market. Importantly, the market samples are genetically identical to human SARS-CoV-2 isolates and were therefore most likely from human sources.
----
The highly-infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus is most ideally adapted to infect human cells—rather than bat or pangolin cells, according to new computer modeling.
In a quest to find a vaccine or drug treatment for COVID-19, high-performance computer modeling has been used by Australian scientists to study the virus's ability to target a variety of 12 exotic and domestic animals in the hope of identifying the original source of the virus.
"The results clearly show that the COVID-19 virus is exquisitely adapted to infect humans," says Flinders University Professor Nikolai Petrovsky, lead author of a new paper just published online in arXiv, a leading US preprint server for researchers.
The study, led by Flinders University scientists, compared the modeling to the virus's ability to bind to human cells and found the SARS-CoV-2 virus targets humans more potently than any of the tested animal species.
"The virus's ability to bind protein on human cells was far greater than its ability to bind the same protein in bats, which argues against bats being a direct source of the human virus."
The team's computer modeling shows the SARS-CoV-2 virus also bound strongly to cells of pangolins, an exotic ant-eater illegally imported into China.
"While it has been suggested by some Chinese scientists that the COVID-19 virus might have been transmitted to humans from pangolins, currently available data does not support this idea," Professor Petrovsky says
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-covid-mystery.html
-------
The odds that this virus was an accidental release from a Chinese lab carrying out gain-of-function research on bat and pangolin coronaviruses just went up
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