While the world is still battling COVID-19 , researchers at Washington State University reported discovering a SARS-CoV-2-like virus in a Russian bat. This new virus is likely capable of infecting humans and is resistant to current vaccines . It has been named Khosta-2 and belongs to the same sub-category of coronaviruses known as sarbecoviruses . Khosta-2 viruses can use their spike protein to infect cells by attaching to a receptor protein, called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, found throughout human cells.
Although Khosta-2 viruses lack some of the genes involved in pathogenesis in humans, there is a risk that they can recombine with a second virus, such as SARS-CoV-2. The researchers have warned that Khosta-2 could pose another global health threat unless we start developing vaccines to protect us against all kinds of sarbecoviruses, not just the known SARS-CoV-2 variants. …
