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Chinese scientists have reported that the coronavirus ripping through populations worldwide is much more likely than its close cousin Sars to bind to human cells, as it contains unexpected genes which link it to HIV and Ebola.
The
research comes from Nankai University in the north Chinese city of Tianjin. Published on February 14, it has already become one of the most viewed papers on the platform, indicating the massive interest both in China and abroad for the latest findings on the virus.
It is well-known by now that 2019-nCoV shares over 80 percent of its DNA with Sars virus, making the cause of the 2002/3 outbreak in Southeast Asia its closest genetic relative. Sars invaded the human body by binding to a receptor protein, called ACE2, on the membranes of cells. But this was ultimately the downfall of that virus — ACE2 is rare in the cells of healthy people, which limited the spread of Sars significantly, resulting in it burning itself out by 2004. In the end, only about 8,000 people worldwide were infected, as compared to covid-19 which has already infected over 80,000 people.
Unlike Sars though, the novel Coronavirus has a section of genes that are absent from the Sars genome, according to this research. In fact, they bear resemblance to genes found in HIV and Ebola. These genes may encode for a different pathway targeting the protein furin on human cells, which is how HIV and Ebola attack. If it operates as those other viruses do, this mutation could make it up to 1,000 times better at binding to human cells than Sars.
Hearing the names of these terrible plagues will hardly serve to inspire confidence in those afraid that the world is spiralling into a global pandemic. Nevertheless, there is a silver lining to this news: Gaining deeper understanding into the precise genetic nature of the coronavirus will enlighten the scientists working on it as to how it transmits from person to person, what a vaccine for it would look like, and ultimately, how it can be stopped.
A controversial bedfellowThe suggestion that the coronavirus may bear some similarities to HIV has sparked controversy before. Earlier this month, a pre-print
paper was published on bioRxiv entitled,
"Uncanny similarity of unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV spike protein to HIV-1 gp120 and Gag", suggested that some HIV genes may have actually leapt into 2019-nCoV, making it more contagious and therefore dangerous.
The paper soon came under fire for the spuriousness of its results, and the authors have acknowledged that it would not have gotten through peer-review in that version. After all, this is the point of peer review: to challenge, clarify and pick holes in research before official publication.
In the case of the latest research, the team behind it have published it as a pre-print on Chinaxiv.org, a Chinese version of bioRxiv used by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. As such it is not peer-reviewed, and the findings must be taken as provisional until the final version of the paper appears.
That said,
it is not the only research that has found the furin-like cleavage site present in HIV and Ebola, but which is absent from other coronaviruses — another pre-print on chinaxiv.org and a French study published in the peer-reviewed journal Antiviral Research came to the same conclusion. Drugs do exist which target the furin enzyme — drugs previously used in HIV treatments. Whether they could be co-opted for covid-19, or whether this is in fact a sensible path towards a treatment, remains to be seen.
It is true, follow link in article read to the end..from Global legal monitor in the library of congress..
China: Vaccine Law Passed
(Aug. 27, 2019) On June 29, 2019, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee of the People’s Republic of China (PRC or China) adopted the PRC Law on Vaccine Administration (Vaccine Law). The official Xinhua news agency states that the Law provides for the “strictest” vaccine management with tough penalties in order to ensure the country’s vaccine safety.
Before the passage of this 100-article Law, provisions governing vaccines were contained in the PRC Drug Administration Law, PRC Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, and a few relevant administrative regulations and rules.
The new Law provides for regulatory requirements for researching, producing, distributing, and using vaccines. Such requirements, according to one legal commentator, are much more stringent than those for other drugs (art. 2). It also contains a chapter specifying penalties for violating the Vaccine Law, which are also stricter than those for violating other drug laws (ch. 10). According to the Law, if any violation of this Law constitutes a crime, a “heavier punishment” within the range of punishments provided by the Criminal Law on the relevant crimes is to be imposed (art. 79).
The Law mandates the launching of a national vaccine electronic tracking platform that integrates tracking information throughout the whole process of vaccine production, distribution, and use to ensure all vaccine products can be tracked and verified (art. 10).
According to the Law, China is to implement a state immunization program, and residents living within the territory of China are legally obligated to be vaccinated with immunization program vaccines, which are provided by the government free of charge. Local governments and parents or other guardians of children must ensure that children be vaccinated with the immunization program vaccines (art. 6).
The Law establishes a compensation system for abnormal reactions to vaccination. A recipient of an immunization program vaccine who dies or suffers significant disability or organ and tissue damage is to be paid from the vaccination funds of the provincial level government if the damage falls within the scope of abnormal reactions associated with a vaccine or cannot be prevented (art. 56).
The Law will take effect on December 1, 2019 (art. 100).