A new virus discovered in Russian horseshoe bats could potentially infect humans and evade Covid-19 vaccines, scientists have warned.
The virus, 'Khosta-2', is categorised as a sarbecovirus – the same type of coronavirus as SARS-CoV-2, which infected more than 600 million people worldwide during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Khosta-2 displays "troubling traits," according to a study in the journal PLoS Pathogens, with a team at Washington State University (WSU) finding that the virus can utilise its spike proteins to infect human cells in a similar fashion to SARS-CoV-2.
Michael Letko, a virologist at WSU and corresponding author of the study, said that the virus was "a threat to global health and ongoing vaccine campaigns against SARS-CoV-2", Euronews reports.
Mr Letko said that the discovery illustrates the need for vaccines that can protect against all sarbecoviruses of SARS-COV-2, not just the known variants such as Omicron.
He added that these "weird Russian viruses" initially appeared to be similar to those discovered around the world and that "because they did not look like SARS-CoV-2, no one thought they were really anything to get too excited about".
It was initially believed that infection of humans would be impossible. However, when his team studied it further, Letko said, they "were really surprised to find they could infect human cells".
"That changes a little bit of our understanding of these viruses, where they come from and what regions are concerning," he said.
The Khosta-1 and Khosta-2 viruses were found in bats near Russia’s Sochi National Park in 2020.
Letko said that Khosta-1 posed minimal risk to humans, but Khosta-2 was more concerning due to its protein-binding capabilities and Covid-19 vaccine resistance.
In the UK, the coronavirus continues to take its toll. On Thursday it was reported in Britain that there were 5,236 new cases and 63 further deaths related to the outbreak.
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