A new Chinese study focusing on a viral cousin of Covid-19 has sparked a wave of concern. However, it is not very different from other works undertaken recently. Its dangerousness may be exaggerated in a post-pandemic context, but it at least encourages discussion about the safety conditions in which these experiments are conducted.
“Pangolin”, “deadly virus”, “manipulations in a Chinese laboratory”… these are key words that cause a certain concern and take us directly back to the famous year 2020, when SARS-CoV-2 confined the world was and caused hundreds of people. Thousands of deaths. Last weekend, the press was really excited about a pre-published study by scientists at the University of Chemical Technology in Beijing. A “very worrying research” headline Le Figaro, according to the DailyMail, around a “100% lethal mutant virus”. Here’s what it really is.
What is GX_P2V?
The GX_P2V is a virus A cousin of SARS-CoV-2, discovered on pangolins in 2017. Chinese researchers wanted Examine its possible effects on humans. For this, they are on the one hand isolates and purifies viruses In the laboratory, too Four genetically modified mice To “humanize” them and thus provide a better overview of what this virus will produce in us. After inoculating them with virus, All are dead : So this 100% death rate And scientists warn of the “risk” of spreading to humans.
Quite classic “manipulations” in reality.
So some articles have raised the question: Would it have been possible for scientists to manipulate transgenic mice to infect more human cells? Researchers, in their labs, will somehow Increased pathogenic potential This is the coronavirus? Nothing is less certain. According to Florence Debere, Research Director of Evolutionary Biology at the CNRS and an expert on the appearance of SARS-CoV-2 ExpressChinese study authors simply An essential and excellent step achieved Studying the GX_P2V virus, making it pure and essential A little different which occurs in nature in pangolins. “Certainly, it was modified during its passage through the laboratory but not with the aim of making it more viral. On the contrary, it lost 104 elements! The authors also write that it contains summer. ‘decline’“, The researcher explains.
It’s very disappointing to see the misinformation about the pre-release from the beginning of the month and suddenly Le Figaro being considered legit because it’s being fooled▫️1/ pic.twitter.com/K3RtwL9j66
— Flo Debere (@flodebre) January 19, 2024
Similar research around the world
According to her, there is no reason to say that this is the latest virus “More Deadly” Than Covid-19: When humanized mice were infected with SARS-CoV-2 by Japanese researchers, All died equally. in publicationVirologist Simon Van-Hobson questions the concerns raised by this research: “I’m surprised that everyone is interested in this story, it’s a study that should live in the world of virology.”
Many similar studies have been conducted elsewhere, particularly in China. In February 2023, a team from the Wuhan Virology Laboratory published work on the same coronavirus. Mortality was lower in cases, but not similarly altered in rats. Who said so to Florence Debere “This result is due more to the mice used than to the virus”. No American and French teams Also working on pangolin viruses caught in China in 2017 and 2019 (GX/2017 and GD/2019).
Security issues arise
However, it is true The biosecurity level of the Chinese laboratory was not specified, which may lead to fear in a post-pandemic context. Therefore, for some scientists, The risk that he could escape is “credible”.. Experts regularly criticize Lack of controls and reflection Around this question: “Dangerous viruses have already been handled under inadequately safe conditions”Microbiologist Patrick Burchey estimates Libbe. Because this kind of experience This provides the virus with the potential to develop its epidemic potential, if not properly controlled. Remember that for the moment, the true origin of the 2020 pandemic has not really been discovered. If the path of transmission through bats is favored by the Pasteur Institute, the question remains how these animals, living in southern China, Laos and Vietnam, reached Wuhan, the cradle of the tragedy.
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