Khosta: A Genetic and Structural Point of View of the Forgotten Virus-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Khosta: A Genetic and Structural Point of View of the Forgotten Virus

Published:2023-06-01 Issue:3 Volume:15 Page:307-318
ISSN:2036-7449
Container-title:Infectious Disease Reports
language:en
Short-container-title:Infectious Disease Reports

Author:

Scarpa Fabio¹^ORCID,Imperia Elena²³,Ciccozzi Alessandra²,Pascarella Stefano⁴^ORCID,Quaranta Miriana⁴,Giovanetti Marta⁵⁶^ORCID,Borsetti Alessandra⁷^ORCID,Petrosillo Nicola⁸^ORCID,Ciccozzi Massimo²^ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, 07100 Sassari, Italy

2. Unit of Medical Statistics and Molecular Epidemiology, University of Campus Bio-Medico, 00128 Rome, Italy

3. Unit of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, University Campus Bio-Medico, 00128 Rome, Italy

4. Department of Biochemical Sciences “A. Rossi Fanelli”, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, 00185 Rome, Italy

5. Sciences and Technologies for Sustainable Development and One Health, University of Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, 00128 Rome, Italy

6. Rene Rachou, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte 30.190-009, Minas Gerais, Brazil

7. National HIV/AIDS Research Center, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy

8. Infection Prevention and Control-Infectious Disease Service, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Campus Bio-Medico, 00128 Rome, Italy

Abstract

Bats are well-known to be natural reservoirs of various zoonotic coronaviruses, which have caused outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2002 and 2019, respectively. In late 2020, two new Sarbecoviruses were found in Russia, isolated in Rhinolophus bats, i.e., Khosta-1 in R. ferrumequinum and Khosta-2 in R. hipposideros. The potential danger associated with these new species of Sarbecovirus is that Khosta-2 has been found to interact with the same entry receptor as SARS-CoV-2. Our multidisciplinary approach in this study demonstrates that Khosta-1 and -2 currently appear to be not dangerous with low risk of spillover, as confirmed by prevalence data and by phylogenomic reconstruction. In addition, the interaction between Khosta-1 and -2 with ACE2 appears weak, and furin cleavage sites are absent. While the possibility of a spillover event cannot be entirely excluded, it is currently highly unlikely. This research further emphasizes the importance of assessing the zoonotic potential of widely distributed batborne CoV in order to monitor changes in genomic composition of viruses and prevent spillover events (if any).

Publisher

MDPI AG

Subject

Infectious Diseases

Link

https://www.mdpi.com/2036-7449/15/3/31/pdf

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