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