From Nature.com
(NOTE the date of the article)
Letter
Published: 09 November 2015
A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergencehttps://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985.pdf (downloadable)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985 Web page that gives information on authors (click on author's name)
Note the Authors, and that among them, Xing-Yi Ge is from
Xing-Yi Ge
Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
and (I missed this the first time I posted this information) Zhengli-Li Shi
Zhengli-Li Shi
Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens and Biosafety, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
From the Abstract:
Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system2, we generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone. The results indicate that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV. Additionally, in vivo experiments demonstrate replication of the chimeric virus in mouse lung with notable pathogenesis. Evaluation of available SARS-based immune-therapeutic and prophylactic modalities revealed poor efficacy; both monoclonal antibody and vaccine approaches failed to neutralize and protect from infection with CoVs using the novel spike protein. On the basis of these findings, we synthetically re-derived an infectious full-length SHC014 recombinant virus and demonstrate robust viral replication both in vitro and in vivo. Our work suggests a potential risk of SARS-CoV re-emergence from viruses currently circulating in bat populations.
Considering the Wuhan Lab connections, was the work done in North Carolina shared/stolen/transferred and used to make the SARS-CoV-2 strain that causes COVID-19?
I am not accusing any of these researchers of any improper activity, but the connection to the epicenter of this outbreak is hard to ignore.