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Lab-made virus infects cells, interacts with antibodies just like SARS-CoV-2:
Airborne and potentially deadly, the virus that causes COVID-19 can only be studied safely under high-level biosafety conditions. Scientists handling the infectious virus must wear full-body biohazard suits with pressurized respirators, and work inside laboratories with multiple containment levels and specialized ventilation systems. While necessary to protect laboratory workers, these safety precautions slow down efforts to find drugs and vaccines for COVID-19 since many scientists lack access to the required biosafety facilities.
To help remedy that, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a hybrid virus that will enable more scientists to enter the fight against the pandemic. The researchers genetically modified a mild virus by swapping one of its genes for one from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The resulting hybrid virus infects cells and is recognized by antibodies just like SARS-CoV-2, but can be handled under ordinary laboratory safety conditions.
The study is available online in Cell Host & Microbe.
I've never had this many requests for a scientific material in such a short period of time. We've distributed the virus to researchers in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and, of course, all over the U.S. We have requests pending from the U.K. and Germany. Even before we published, people heard that we were working on this and started requesting the material."
Sean Whelan, PhD, co-senior author, the Marvin A. Brennecke Distinguished Professor and head of the Department of Molecular Microbiology
[...] Since the hybrid virus looks like SARS-CoV-2 to the immune system but does not cause severe disease, it is a potential vaccine candidate, Diamond added. He, Whelan and colleagues are conducting animal studies to evaluate the possibility.
Journal Reference:
Case, J.B., et al. (2020) Neutralizing antibody and soluble ACE2 inhibition of a replication-competent VSV-SARS-CoV-2 and a clinical isolate of SARS-CoV-2. Cell Host & Microbe. doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2020.06.021.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Friday July 24 2020, @04:50PM (5 children)
The amusing thing? We've had a lot of people tell us that Covid19 could not have been engineered in a lab. But, right here, we have people engineering a similar virus, albeit, without some of the deadlier aspects of Covid19.
Now, either we can engineer viruses, or we cannot engineer viruses. I really don't want to hear, "Yeah, but NOBODY would have engineered Covid19! You're a racist for even thinking the Chinese (or Bill Gates, or any of the other proffered names) would DO such a thing!"
We have two possible sources of Covid19. It either evolved naturally in the pressure cooker of the wet markets in Wuhan - or it came from a laboratory in Wuhan. Even odds?
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 24 2020, @05:02PM
It displays affinity for human ACE-2 receptors, there's no natural evolution (and by extension recombination event) that would have escaped our notice. If the selection pressure required to "evolve" this virus occurred outside of a laboratory setting, people should have no problem providing evidence for it. The burden of proof remains on those claiming SARS-CoV-2 is anything other than gain of function research.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Aegis on Friday July 24 2020, @07:54PM
Third option: we can engineer viruses but you would be able to tell it was engineered if you saw it
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @09:13AM
It is a fallacy to think that the probability of an outcome is always equal to 1/n where n is equal to the number of possible outcomes.
Besides, those aren't the only two possibilities.
(Score: 2) by dry on Saturday July 25 2020, @05:18PM (1 child)
I thought it was pretty established it was an American picking up a bat on the side of the road and adding it to his pot of road kill stew while picking his nose and then flying into China that was the cause.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @05:44PM
Mmmm - you're making me hungry. Think I'll go drive up and down the highway, and see what's on the menu.