GlobalHealth Threats

SARS-like viruses in bats are able to infect humans and a new study has highlighted the risk from this reservoir. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the authors based at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill describe another virus identified in Chinese horseshoe bats. This new virus called WIV1-CoV was found to pose a significant threat. According to Vineet Menachery, Ph.D., the study’s first author, "The capacity of this group of viruses to jump into humans is greater than we originally thought [...] while other adaptations may be required to produce an epidemic, several viral strains circulating in bat populations have already overcome the barrier of replication in human cells and suggest re-emergence as a distinct possibility."

The WIV1-CoV could bind to the same receptors as SARS-CoV. The team also showed that the virus readily and efficiently replicated in cultured human airway tissues, suggesting an ability to jump directly to humans. It doesn't immediately follow that it will make the leap to cause human infections but it has the potential to seed a new outbreak with significant consequences for both public health and the global economy. Somewhat reassuring is the fact that antibodies developed to treat SARS in 2002 were effective in both human and animal tissue samples against WIV1-CoV. However, the global production capacity is limited and may not be able to be effectively scaled up. The report says it appears that the virus would need additional adaptations, possibly involving components other than its spike protein, before it could easily spread in humans. Also, monoclonal antibodies developed to treat SARS were effective against the virus in human and animal cells, the researchers found. Existing SARS vaccines, however, would not prevent infection with it, they said. 

We covered this research team back in November 2015 when another SARS-like virus was identified (SHC014-CoV), emphasising the need to keep this group of viruses under surveillance.