Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology led the study,publishedlast week in the journalCell.
In 2006, researchers in Hong Kongidentifieda coronavirus in pipistrelle bats that became known as HKU5-CoV.
In the lab, the researchers found evidence that HKU5-CoV-2 could potentially infect a wide range of mammals.
An illustration of coronaviruses.© JBArt via Shutterstock
It does so by interacting with a protein receptor found in many types of cells, called ACE2.
These findings, however, do not mean that HKU5-CoV-2 is destined to become the next covid.
Importantly, no human cases of HKU5-CoV-2 have been reported to date.
HKU5-CoV-2 might never jump over into humans, but others like it eventually could.
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