New virus poses threat

A new coronavirus similar to SARS that could pass from animals to humans has been identified. It has many potential hosts, according researchers in Germany. Lead author Christian Drosten of the University of Bonn Medical Centre in Germany said given the similarities the new coronavirus and SARS might use the same receptor; a molecular dock on human cells that the virus latches onto to gain entry. The SARS receptor is mostly found mostly deep within the human lung so a person would have to breathe in many, many SARS viruses for a sufficient number of them to reach this vulnerable area and cause an infection. Drosten said this is what helped ensure the SARS outbreak didn't spread like wildfire and was mostly limited to healthcare workers and inhabitants of overcrowded housing in Hong Kong. However, the new virus does not use the same receptor as SARS. If that receptor of the new virus is present in mucosal surfaces, such as the lining of the lung, it is possible that it could pass from animals to humans and back again, making animals an ongoing source of the virus that would be difficult or impossible to eliminate. The findings were published in mBio, the open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.