The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, is most ideally adapted to infect human cells, rather than bat or pangolin cells, according to a study which raises questions about the origin of the virus. The researchers from Flinders University and La Trobe University in Australia used high-performance computer modelling of the form of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at the beginning of the pandemic to predict its ability to infect humans and 12 domestic and exotic animals.
The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports on Thursday, aimed to help identify any intermediate animal vector that may have played a role in transmitting a bat virus to humans. The researchers used genomic data from the 12 animal species to painstakingly build computer models of the key ACE2 protein receptors for each species.
These models were then used to calculate the strength of binding of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to each species’ ACE2, which acts as the receptor for SARS-CoV-2 and allows it to infect the…