Scientists stumble upon alphacoronavirus with pandemic potential in East African bats

A new bat coronavirus can cause the next pandemic, according to scientists who have found an alphacoronavirus, called KY43, that can enter human cells. They say it can bind to a cell receptor in the human lung. The virus is present in the heart–nosed bats that live in parts of Kenya, eastern Sudan and northern Tanzania. The discovery has been made by an international team of researchers who say that it has not yet jumped to the local human population, although it is capable of causing an infection that can ultimately snowball into a pandemic. Researchers said that KY43 is one of a million viruses that could leap from bats to people. COVID-19, the pandemic that wreaked havoc across the world, was deduced to have originated from a coronavirus that infects wild bats, which then jumped to humans.

Alphacoronavirus KY43 can enter human cells

The scientists in the study, published in the journal Nature, selected and synthesised alphacoronavirus 'spike' proteins from a database of known genetic sequences. Dozens of these spike proteins were screened against a library of human receptors to which they could attach. They found one virus, KY43, that had the ability to enter human cells. Study author Dr Dalan Bailey, from The Pirbright Institute, said, "Before our study, it was assumed most alphacoronaviruses used just one or two possible receptors to enter their host, and the only difference was which species they could enter." However, the study found that "alphacoronaviruses might use a whole variety of additional receptors to get into cells."

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The authors say that their study shows a need for further research in East Africa to "better understand the risk from the wider family of viruses that can use this human receptor." Dr James Nyagwange, KEMRI–Wellcome Trust Research Programme, who was part of the study, said this will help humanity prepare for such a scenario and start developing vaccines and antivirals. Professor Neuman said scientists typically only respond to new outbreaks. But, in this case, there is "a virus with a toolkit" which was found before it could spread to humans. While this virus has been found to be capable of entering human cells, for that to happen, it would have to evade the immune system, and several other factors would also play a role. "At present, there is no evidence of immune evasion by these viruses. And we don't know what sort of disease it might cause, if any," Neuman said.

Experts say that it cannot be said with certainty that the virus can successfully replicate in humans if it ever spills over. However, it is better to have a warning and prepare for it than face it afterwards with nothing to fight them.