In a Wuhan-esque study, Chinese scientists are experimenting with a mutant strain of COVID-19 that is 100% lethal in “humanized” mice.
The deadly virus – known as GX_P2V – attacked the brains of mice engineered to reflect a similar genetic make-up to humans, according to a study shared last week from Beijing.
“This emphasizes the risk of spillover of GX_P2V into humans and provides a unique model for understanding the pathogenic mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2-related viruses,” the authors wrote.
The deadly virus is a mutated version of GX/2017, a cousin of the coronavirus that was reportedly found in Malaysian pangolins in 2017 — three years before the outbreak.
All the mice infected with the virus died within just eight days, which the researchers said was a “shockingly” rapid death rate.
Chinese scientists are experimenting with GX_P2V, a mutated coronavirus found in Malaysian pangolins in 2017. AFP via Getty Images
GX_P2V infected the lungs, bones, eyes, trachea and brain of dead mice, the latter severely enough to eventually cause the death of the animals.
In the days before their deaths, the mice had lost weight rapidly, displayed a hunched posture and moved very sluggishly.
Most frighteningly, their eyes turned completely white the day before they died.
All the infected mice died within eight days, the study said. filen174 – stock.adobe.com
While frightening, the study is the first of its kind to report a 100% mortality rate in mice infected with the COVID-19-related virus — far surpassing previously reported results from other studies, the researchers wrote.
More importantly, the results of the study do not clearly show how it will affect humans.
Francois Balloux, an epidemiologist at the Institute of Genetics at University College London, slammed the research as “appalling” and “scientifically completely useless.”
Dr. Gennadi Glinsky, a retired professor of medicine at Stanford, wrote: “This madness must be stopped before it’s too late.” African Studio – stock.adobe.com
“I can’t see any vague significance to be learned from forcibly infecting a strange breed of humanized mice with a random virus. On the other hand, I can see how such a thing could go wrong,” the professor write on X.
“The preprint does not specify the level of biosafety and biosafety precautions used for the research,” he continued.
“This lack of information raises the possibility that some or all of this research, such as the research in Wuhan in 2016-2019 that likely caused the Covid-19 pandemic, was conducted recklessly without minimum biosafety containment and essential practices for research with potential pandemic pathogens.”
Professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Ruger University Richard H. Ebright supports Balloux’s concerns simply: “agree.”
Dr. Gennadi Glinsky, a retired professor of medicine at Stanford, wrote: “This madness must be stopped before it’s too late.”
The 2024 study does not appear to have any connection to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is at the center of the lab leak theory surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
US intelligence agencies over the summer found no direct evidence that the lab leaked the coronavirus, although did not rule out the possibility that the virus came from another.
The origin of COVID-19 is still unclear.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
