A study published in the journal PLoS Pathogens has revealed a new strain of SARS-CoV-2-like virus. The new virus discovered in Russian bats was found to be capable of infecting humans and was resistant to current vaccines against COVID-19. The study conducted by researchers from Washington State University (WSU), US, showed that the spike proteins from the bat virus, named Khosta-2, were able to infect human cells and were resistant to both the antibody therapies and blood serum from people vaccinated for SARS-CoV-2.

The researchers claimed that Khosta-2 and SARS-CoV-2 belonged to the same sub-category of coronaviruses known as sarbecoviruses. Dr. Michael Letko, the corresponding author of the study, stated that the Khosta-2 virus posed a threat to global health and ongoing vaccine campaigns against SARS-CoV-2. The findings of the study highlight the need to develop universal vaccines to protect against sarbecoviruses rather than against known variants of SARS-CoV-2.

The researchers revealed that Khosta-2 uses its spike protein to infect cells by attaching to a receptor protein called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), found throughout human cells, like SARS-CoV-2. They added that during the study, when they used blood serum derived from people vaccinated for COVID-19, they found that Khosta-2 was not neutralised by any of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines. Similarly, when tested against serum from people who were infected with the Omicron variant, those antibodies were found to be ineffective too.