June 29, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Researchers from two Australian universities have published a paper demonstrating that COVID-19 is especially adept at infecting human cells and not those of bats, furthering speculation over the pathogen’s origin.
A team of scientists from Flinders University in South Australia, along with researchers at La Trobe University, Victoria, published a study June 24 on the ability of the molecule associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, the spike protein, to bind with ACE2 (angiotensin converting enzyme 2) proteins in a range of animal species. The team designed their study to focus on the most receptive species to COVID-19 infection with the hope that more might be known about cross-species transfer of the virus from an intermediary animal vector, as was proposed in the previously favored bat-origin thesis.
However, the researchers discovered that, in line with the lab-leak thesis, “[s]pike protein exhibited the highest binding to human (h)ACE2 of all the species tested,” including bats and a further eleven domestic and wild animal species, which means that the spike protein is more suited to attacking human cells than any other proposed origin species, they said. Typically, it is expected that the highest binding capacity of a viral protein to
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at LifeSite News
The views expressed in this news alert by the author do not directly represent that of The Official Street Preachers or its editors