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Chinese Study Finds Bat Virus That Enters Human Cells The Same Way As Covid-19
The Straits Times
|February 23, 2025
A newly discovered bat coronavirus uses the same cell-surface protein to gain entry into human cells as the Sars-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19, raising the possibility that it could someday spread to humans, researchers from China have reported.
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BEIJING -
However, the virus does not enter human cells as readily as Sars-CoV-2 does, the Chinese researchers reported in the journal Cell, noting some of its limitations.
Like Sars-CoV-2, the bat virus HKU5-CoV-2 contains a feature known as the furin cleavage site that helps it to enter cells via the ACE2 receptor protein on cell surfaces, the researchers said.
This story is from the February 23, 2025 edition of The Straits Times.
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