The Corona Virus of Current COVID-19 Pandemic could not have been Created in a Laboratory
Corona Virus of Current COVID-19
There is a conspiracy theory going around that the Corona Virus (now named SARS-COV-2) which is the cause of the current Corona pandemic (now named COVID-19) was made in the China Laboratory. The suspicious arose from the evidence that the Corona Virus Research Laboratory this allegation to be true (we call it null hypothesis).
A group of scientists led by Prof. Edward Holmes from the University of Sydney, Dr. Kristian Anderson and his colleagues from Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California and Dr. Robert Gary from Tulane University which works on SARS viruses is situated in Wuhan adjacent to the local fish market.
A theory is now floating around that this virus was made from two viruses, Corona and Herpes. Not only common people but even scientists in the USA and other countries initially started gathering proof considering, New Orleans initiated a collaborative research program and exchanged research data on a virtual platform. Their findings have been published in very renowned peer-reviewed journals such as Nature-Medicine, Lancet and Cell. All these papers have become the highest-ranking referred papers within a week. One paper in Cell has been released as Pre-press, possibly to dispel these rumors.
Now, what is the proof they obtained?
There are two ways a new virus can come into being:
- swapping of genes in nature- that means you take some of my genes and I take some of yours, in that case resulting in two new variants, which may or may not be disease-causing and
- tailor-made by inserting new and novel sequences.
To explore the first option these scientists (and now evidence has come from several groups in China, South Korea, and other countries) sequenced the genome of the SARS-COV-2 virus isolated from patients diagnosed to be positive from Wuhan (the first hotspot of the pandemic). The genomic data were then compared for similarities with genomic data of known Coronaviruses. When it comes to genomic data there is a lot of international cooperation as scientists deposit the genome sequence information with designated gene banks accessible to any scientist. The comparative study revealed that the Wuhan virus shares 50-90% similarities (such as the bat, SARS, and MERS viruses). The surprise came when the virus isolated from a dead Pangolin salvaged from the Wuhan fish market was sequenced. The SARS-Cov-2 and the pangolin virus shared a sequence of 12 extra building block (we call it nucleotides) which would convert a spike protein to add 4 amino acids. This addition enabled an enzyme ‘Furin’ to bind and cause a cut at specific site. When in any Corona virus this site is created (due to insertion of 4 amino acids) the virus becomes highly contagious and transmissible because now the virus is able to bind to ACE-2 cells in respiratory tract very tightly, multiply, get released and rebind to other cells. These scientists recalled similar insertion in bird flu pandemic. Even in that case, the isolated virus showed these novel insertions.
Another proof against the man-made theory and in favor of nature-swapped theory is the presence of sugar-binding sites. The novel virus has been found to have sugar attachment sites that create a mucin-like shield around the virus. Such a coat protects the virus from immune attack. It may be easy to insert nucleotide by artificially causing point-mutation but not possible to insert sugar attachment sites. A paper was also published in nextstrain.org, which claimed that SAR-Cov-2 had some insertions similar to HIV virus. But, as Dr. Emma Hodcroft, a molecular epidemiologist from the University of Basel in Switzerland, pointed out that the paper was bad science as very small and insignificant similarities which is likely to be seen amongst large numbers of viruses was blown out of proportion. After severe criticism on this paper, it was withdrawn. There is also no proof that the SARS-Cov-2 has any significant stretch that has similarities to Herpes virus.
In conclusion, a large group of scientists from across the globe (AND NOT CHINA) are of the firm opinion that this virus may be a mixture of bat and pangolin viruses, but evolved in nature, possibly only jumping one species (and not 2 as it was believed earlier).
Pangolin, a nocturnal mammal, is found in India, especially Himalayan, North Eastern States and South India. The Tamil settlements in Tamu along Moreh in Manipur and their relatives in Tamil Nadu, Berhampur in Odisha and elsewhere form a crucial link in this chain. There are reports of thriving smuggling of Pangolin from India to China via Myanmar as it fetches a very high price (average around US$ 40,000) for its scales and meat. As per an estimate around 6000 pangolins were smuggled between 2009 to 2017.
They also pointed out that if such a thing can happen in nature. We have to be alert as it can happen quite often. The group offered two immediate actions as low hanging fruits:
(a) No wild-life (especially birds) should be permitted in the ‘wet market’ (like fish market) and
(b) Biologists should isolate and do genomic studies on corona viruses in various wildlife animals and birds. The genomic evolution studies would help in drawing better control strategies.
(Explained by Dr. Abdul Samad, Ex Dean, Faculty of Veterinary Science and Director of Instructions, MAFSU, Nagpur, comments be sent on drasamad@hotmail.com)