Almost time for prayer. Join in at 3:15 Eastern
to pray for our country and others.
Like your name, O God, your praise reaches to the ends of the earth; your right hand is filled with righteousness.
Psa. 48:10
From Huff Docuemnts:
(21). In 2004, our group discovered SARS-like (SL) CoVs in free-living wild bat species in China and demonstrated that human SARS-CoV nestled phylogenetically within this group (4). However, SARS-CoV uses the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor to gain entry to human cells (22), and bat SL-CoVs appeared unable to bind to ACE2. A large number of novel Alpha- and Betacoronaviruses have since been discovered in Old and New World bats, but few have been isolated (8, 11-13, 23-27). In 2012, we isolated and characterized two bat SL-CoVs from Rhinolophus sinicus from Yunnan Province, China that use the ACE2 receptor and are closely related to SARS-CoV (Fig. 1) (28). We found a seasonal shedding pattern for this SL-CoV, with peak prevalence of 30-50%. Bats from this population are hunted for human consumption, posing two crucial questions: 1) What is the risk of these CoVs emerging in humans? 2) Will the conditions that exist in live animal markets in Asia promote further emergence of bat-CoVs in human populations?
ACE2 blockers have been proven to be effective against SARS-COV-19.