‘Bats dwelling in limestone caves in northern Laos were found to carry coronaviruses that share a key feature with Sars-CoV-2, moving scientists closer to pinpointing the cause of Covid-19. Researchers at France's Pasteur Institute and the University of Laos looked for viruses similar to the one that causes Covid-19 among hundreds of horseshoe bats.
‘They found three with closely matched receptor binding domains - the part of the coronavirus' spike protein used to bind to human ACE-2, the enzyme it targets to cause an infection. The finding, reported in a paper released on Friday (Sept 17) that is under consideration for publication by Nature journal, shows that viruses closely related to Sars-CoV-2 exist in nature, including in several Rhinolophus, or horseshoe bat, species. The research supports the hypothesis that the pandemic began from a spillover of a bat-borne virus.’
Read here (Straits Times, Sept 18, 2021)
