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New "high-risk virus"? Variant could skip to humans - researchers warn

2020-10-23T08:49:09.625Z


While the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic continues, researchers in China are currently investigating whether another coronavirus could be dangerous for people. So far, pigs have mainly been affected.


While the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic continues, researchers in China are currently investigating whether another coronavirus could be dangerous for people.

So far, pigs have mainly been affected.

  • Researchers are currently investigating the novel coronavirus Sads-CoV, which was discovered in pigs in China.

  • Similar to Sars-CoV-2, it seems possible that the pathogen can jump over to humans.

  • Scientists urge preliminary observation.

Beijing - The

Sars-CoV-2

*

coronavirus

has not only determined the news situation since the beginning of the year, but also the everyday life of the majority of people worldwide.

While large parts of Germany and the rest of the world * are in the middle of the second

corona wave *

, the eyes of some

researchers are

now

turning

to

China

, where another

corona

virus has come

into the focus of scientific studies.

Another coronavirus in China: extremely high death rate among affected piglets

The pathogen Swine Acute Diarrhea Syndrome Coronavirus (

Sads-CoV

) has already caused several outbreaks of disease in

pigs

in China in recent years

.

Sads-CoV causes severe vomiting diarrhea in the affected animals and leads to death in 90 percent of the cases, especially in piglets that were less than six days old.

Similar to

Sars-CoV-2

, the researchers assume that the pathogen originally

attacked

bats

.

Probably also due to the currently ongoing

pandemic

*

, US

researchers have

now

addressed

the question of whether Sads-CoV could also pose a threat to humans.

As reported by focus.de, Caitlin Edwards and her team from the University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill (UNC)

infected and examined

various

cell cultures

from monkeys, cats and

people

with Sads-CoV.

Sads-CoV: "Potential high-risk coronavirus" - also people at risk?

The

scientists

found that almost all of the cell cultures tested turned out to be susceptible to the novel

virus

.

The researchers were able to determine an increase in active viruses after 48 hours, especially in cell lines from the liver, stomach and intestines.

"These data demonstrate that the host range of

Sads-CoV is

very broad and includes humans," notes Edwards.

The University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill writes about the findings of its

researchers

on Twitter: "New research by the UNC suggests that a

coronavirus pathogen

that has infected pig herds in China has the potential to spread to humans."

New research from @UNCpublichealth suggests a strain of coronavirus that infected swine herds in China has the potential to spread to humans.

Carolina experts are proactively testing a potential treatment option that was developed by # UNC's @Baric_Lab ⤵️ https://t.co/goaayVeizx

- UNC-Chapel Hill (@UNC) October 17, 2020

However, it is still unclear during the investigation which entry point

Sads-CoV

uses.

The

virus

does not infect the body through receptors or docking sites used by other known

coronaviruses

.

"Antibodies that block these receptors do not inhibit the virus from multiplying in human cells," the

scientists concluded

.

However, since the virus has already been transmitted between bats and pigs, the researchers urge caution.

"With this, Sads-CoV is manifesting itself as a potential

high-risk coronavirus

that could affect global health and the economy."

Coronavirus Sads-CoV: No registered cases in humans - researchers nevertheless urge caution

So far, there

have not been any registered cases

in

China

in which people were infected with Sads-CoV.

Caitlin Edwards' research team advises, however, to closely monitor the situation in pig farms and, above all, to examine the employees there regularly *.

This means that an outbreak of this

coronavirus

could be detected at an early stage.

This could be

decisive

, especially in conjunction with a further finding by the

scientists

.

In cell culture

tests

, the

remdesivir *

, which has already been used in the treatment of

Covid 19 patients

, proved to be extremely effective against Sads-CoV.

If the pathogen should actually spread to humans, you would already have the first treatment strategy in hand and thus

perhaps nip

the spread of the

virus

in the bud.

According to the researchers' findings,

the Sars-Cov2 pathogen, which was first

discovered in a person

in the Chinese metropolis of

Wuhan

, is also a

coronavirus

that previously mainly attacked bats.

Such viruses can, however, also become dangerous for humans through mutations.

This “skipping” of a

virus

from animals to humans is called

zoonosis

.

(fd) * merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital editors network

List of rubric lists: © Julian Stratenschulte / dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-10-23

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