WHITNEY WEBB ON CONVID-19

[David Guyatt]

A very curious document was published on 30 January 2020 well before Covid-19 became the all dancing and all consuming beast it is today in the West.  The original publication site is no longer, but the article still is available at a few other sites.  It is evident that the writer (who uses the alias Adrian Bond - along with a Bond type logo) is very knowledgeable about the subject matter and has taken a considerable amount of time to write this piece.  Although the article is listed as being "Part 1" it seems clear he/she/they are not going to come back out of the rabbit hole to post a follow up

Here goes: (Source: http://archive.is/F04r7) I add the source since the html is displayed and makes it difficult to read)

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]Coronavirus Exposed, Part 1: Communist Coverup, or Pandemic Bioweapon of Mass Destruction?[/color]

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[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]Adrian Bond
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[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176)]Jan 27 · 51 min read[/color]
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[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176)]Coronavirus 2019-nCoV, able to enter and infect human cells’ ACE2 receptor via its spike protein.[/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]The official story about Coronavirus 2019 nCoV is that it “appears to have originated in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, a Chinese city about 650 miles south of Beijing that has a population of more than 11 million people.” This tale has been officially reported as early as January 9th by CCP’s state-owned and operated news channel, Xinhuanet, [i]New-type coronavirus causes pneumonia in Wuhan: expert[/i], reported by local Chinese authorities to the US National Library of Medicine database, [i]Outbreak of Pneumonia of Unknown Etiology in Wuhan China: the Mystery and the Miracle[/i]and to the International Journal of Infectious Diseases database, [i]The continuing 2019-nCoV epidemic threat of novel coronaviruses to global health — The latest 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China[/i].[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)][b]Claims of surprise by Chinese scientists and State officials are arguably inauthentic[/b][/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]But let’s take a deeper look at the glaring discrepancies in the official story to the underlying and background reality of coronaviruses, especially in the SARS-scarred land of China. [i]The Sun[/i] reports that the current consensus centers on the belief that the origin of the coronavirus outbreak is linked to bat soup sold at the market. However, the article states that experts “had thought the new virus wasn’t capable of causing an epidemic as serious as [previous deadly outbreaks of SARS and Ebola] because its genes were different,” something that simply isn’t true. In 2006, renowned virologist Professor Zhengli Shi co-authored the study, [i]Review of Bats and SARS[/i][i], [/i]concluding that “a SARS epidemic may recur in the future and that SARS-like coronaviruses (SL-CoVs) that originate from different reservoir host populations may lead to epidemics at different times or in different regions…. The recent discovery of a group of diverse SL-CoVs in bats support the possibility of these events….”[/color]

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[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176)]Bowl of hot, delicious bat soup served at Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China.[/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]A concurrent article published in the [i]South China Morning Post[/i] on January 22, 2020, entitled [i]Coronavirus weaker than SARS but may share link to bats, Chinese scientists say[/i] reports the latest findings on the coronavirus by scientists at China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “The scientists’ findings, published on Tuesday, suggested that the danger posed by the pneumonia-like virus may have been underestimated by the research community.” However, Prof. Zhengli and her co-authors published a study early last year on March 2, 2019 entitled [i]Bat Coronaviruses in China[/i] which explicitly warned,[/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)][i]“During the past two decades, three zoonotic coronaviruses have been identified as the cause of large-scale disease outbreaks⁻Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and Swine Acute Diarrhea Syndrome (SADS). SARS and MERS emerged in 2003 and 2012, respectively, and caused a worldwide pandemic that claimed thousands of human lives, while SADS struck the swine industry in 2017. They have common characteristics, such as they are all highly pathogenic to humans or livestock, their agents originated from bats, and two of them originated in China. [b]Thus, it is highly likely that future SARS- or MERS-like coronavirus outbreaks will originate from bats, and there is an increased probability that this will occur in China[/b]. Therefore, the investigation of bat coronaviruses becomes an urgent issue for the detection of early warning signs, which in turn minimizes the impact of such future outbreaks in China” (emphasis added).[/i][/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]The [i]South China Morning Post[/i] article continues with the beguiling assertion, “Previously, most scientists believed the new virus could not cause an epidemic as serious as that of SARS because its genes were quite different. But the new study found that, like SARS, the virus targeted a protein called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).” Apparently, the virology scientific community not only failed to heed Prof. Zhengli’s explicit, recent dire warnings about the “high likelihood” that future SARS- or MERS-like coronavirus outbreaks would originate from bats — they also ignored Zhengli’s incredibly pertinent report published ten years ago in July, 2010, [i]Identification of key amino acid residues required for horseshoe bat angiotensin-I converting enzyme 2 to function as a receptor for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus[/i]. The study’s abstract can’t be clearer on the immunological risks associated with protein ACE2, with its obvious liability for usurpation by viral agents with a little modified genome sequencing:[/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)][i]“Angiotensin-I converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the receptor for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (SARS-CoV). A previous study indicated that ACE2 from a horseshoe bat, the host of a highly related SARS-like coronavirus, could not function as a receptor for SARS-CoV. Here, we demonstrate that a 3 aa change from SHE (aa 40–42) to FYQ was sufficient to convert the bat ACE2 into a fully functional receptor for SARS-CoV. We further demonstrate that an ACE2 molecule from a fruit bat, which contains the FYQ motif, was able to support SARS-CoV infection, indicating a potentially much wider host range for SARS-CoV-related viruses among different bat populations.”[/i][/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]This old but remarkable study concludes that only a minor genome sequence change was required to convert a non-susceptible bat ACE2 protein into a functional receptor for SARS-CoV, something that could easily happen in nature. “Considering that there are more than 60 different horseshoe [bat] species around the world (Flanders et al., 2009; Rossiter et al., 2007), it is possible that one or some of them may serve as the natural reservoir of SARS-CoV and/or its progenitor virus(es).” Why is it that current State virologists are apparently ignorant of these essential discoveries of yesteryear?[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]The [i]South China Morning Post[/i] article cited above summarizes two primary known facts about the new coronavirus: first, that a “virus found in fruit bats is [the] common ancestor of the two strains [Coronavirus 2019-nCoV and SARS],” and that this “new strain has [an] unusually high ability to bind to a human protein.” And the new study on Coronavirus 2019-nCoV by the joint research team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the People’s Liberation Army, and Institut Pasteur of Shanghai indeed found that, like SARS, the virus targeted the ACE2 protein. It’s just as Prof. Zhengli predicated a decade ago: “…the fact that an ACE2 protein from a megabat, the fruit bat Rousettus leschenaultia, can function as a receptor for SARS-CoV would suggest that the host range for SARS-CoV or SL-CoVs may be much wider than originally thought.”[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]So what happened — did the virology and surrounding scientific community drop the ball on these well-established findings and warnings, or what? After all, at least as February, 2008, they knew three key facts about ACE2:[/color][/color]

1. [color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is caused by the SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which uses ACE2 as its receptor for cell entry. SL-CoVs and SARS-CoVs share identical genome organizations and high sequence identities, with the main exception of the N terminus of the spike protein, known to be responsible for receptor binding in CoVs.[/color]
   
   
2. [color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]Whereas the SL-CoV spike protein was unable to use any of the three ACE2 molecules as its receptor, and the SARS-CoV spike protein failed to center cells expressing the bat ACE2, the chimeric spike protein the study created did gain its ability to center cells via human ACE, and[/color]
   
   
3. [color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]A minimal insert region (amino acids 310 to 518) was found to be sufficient to convert the SL-CoV S from non-ACE2 binding to human ACE2 binding, indicating that the SL-CoV S is largely compatible with SARS-CoV S protein both in structure and in function.[/color]
   

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)][i]We know[/i] they knew these facts way back in 2008 because Prof. Zhengli published the findings of these facts in her report, [i]Difference in Receptor Usage between Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Coronavirus and SARS-Like Coronavirus of Bat Origin[/i]. Therein the scientists concluded, “Knowing the capability of different CoVs to recombine both in the laboratory and in nature, the possibility that SL-CoVs may gain the ability to infect human cells by acquiring spike protein sequences competent for binding to ACE2 or other surface proteins of human cells can be readily envisaged.” Thus, it seems strange and perhaps even disingenuous that the new joint CCP government-joint Coronavirus 2019-nCoV task force is seemingly ignorant about coronavirus targeting the ACE2 protein, apparently pretending it’s only just now discovered this. After all, Zhengli’s 2008 report was quite clear about the role that this ACE2 protein would play in future pandemics: the study “strengthened our belief that ACE2 from certain bat species could be able to support SARS-CoV infection because of the predicted genetic diversity of bat ACE2 variants in different bat species.”[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)][b]What is the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, where is it, and why is it pertinent?[/b][/color]

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[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176)]Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, the only P4 lab in China, headquartered at Wuhan Institute of Virology.[/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]At any rate, the forgoing storyline is the official word on Coronavirus 2019-nCoV, manifesting itself somehow in a seafood market in Wuhan. But what else might be found in Wuhan? After all, Wuhan is the capital city of the Hubei Province, home to some 11 million Chinese citizens. Well, curiously underreported is the fact that China’s first high-level biosafety laboratory is located just 8.6 miles away. “Used to study class four pathogens (P4), which refer to the most virulent viruses that pose a high risk of aerosol-transmitted person-to-person infections,” Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory is the darling, cutting-edge hi-tech baby of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is the only such lab in China where dangerous, highly communicable viruses such as Ebola, SARS, MERS, and assorted coronaviruses can be “safely” toyed with.[/color]

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[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176)]China’s National Biosafety Laboratory, located at Wuhan Institute of Virology, is only 8.6 miles away from the claimed epicenter of the Coronavirus 2019-nCoV outbreak. Do you believe in coincidences?[/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]What’s odd is that despite completing the decade-long construction and having the official inauguration of this P4 laboratory on January 31, 2015 — announced by the General Office of Hubei Provincial People’s Government, it wasn’t until 2 and 1/2 years later in January 2018, that the Chinese government announced that the lab was actually in operation. And ahead of the lab’s second opening in January 2018, biosafety experts and scientists from the United States expressly warned “that a SARS-like virus could escape,” much in the same way the SARS virus had escaped multiple times from a lab in Beijing.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]So what on earth could these scientists have been doing in their brand new, state-of-the-art biotech base for 2 and 1/2 years, if it wasn’t officially in operation? And what have they been doing since their second opening in 2018?[/color]

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[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176)]Scientists at Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory research coronaviruses, Ebola, and other deadly pathogens.[/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]Well, storing, researching, and experimenting with numerous fulminant disease pathogens, of course. After all, the lab is “preservation center for virus seeds, a fulminant disease pathogen storage facility, a reference laboratory of WHO, a node for disease network, and finally…a core in China’s emerging disease research network.” Basically, in all of China, Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory is the [i]only[/i] place to store and experiment with the most lethal, most virulent, most rapidly-spreading disease pathogens known to humanity. The lab is in “the central region of Central China, with mountains at three directions, convenient transportation and relatively independent environment” [sic]. And convenient it is, as you can play with Ebola, SARS, Hantavirus, and assorted coronaviruses in the morning…and then hop in your car and have some bat soup for lunch at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market on the other side of the Yangtze River. [i]Maybe BYOB — bring your own bat?[/i][/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]Once Wuhan Institute of Virology formally put their brand new Cellular Level Biosafety Level 4 Laboratory into operation, we can safely take their word that they followed up on their promise to “conduct research for natural focal viruses including Ebola virus and other emerging viruses, such as researches [sic] on rapid detection system, molecular epidemiology, infectious disease etiology, therapeutic antibody, vaccine and drug evaluation, and assessment on biological risk factors, thus building a biosafety platform in China for emerging and fulminant infectious diseases in terms of isolation and identification of pathogen, building of infection models, vaccine development, biological containment and research on mechanism of interaction between pathogen and the host.” And one thing we know they worked on is the [i]Origin and evolution of pathogenic coronaviruses[/i], pioneered by none other than the enormously qualified, highly-decorated, and widely-respected Professor Zhengli Shi, Senior Scientist and Principal Investigator.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)][b]Who is Professor Zhengli Shi and what is her relevance to Wuhan Institute of Virology and the National Biosafety Laboratory?[/b][/color]

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[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176)]Professor Zhengli Shi, Senior Scientist and Principal Investigator of Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory.[/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)][i]Do you believe in coincidences?[/i] Because it just so happens that Prof. Zhengli has been ardently researching and experimenting with coronaviruses for years at Wuhan Institute of Virology — even before ground was broken over a decade ago on the new P4 National Biosafety Laboratory. Interestingly, the scientist seems uniquely perfect for her role — like a “Neo” figure in a laboratory version of [i]The Matrix[/i]. In fact, Prof. Zhengli has been Senior Scientist and Principal Investigator of Wuhan Insititute of Virology for the last 20 years, initially starting as a Research Assistant in 1990 before upgrading to Research Scientist in 1993, serving in that role until 1995. Aside from a 5-year leave from 1995 to 2000 to get her PhD at University of Montpellier in France, she’s been at the Institute for an amazing 30 years.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]Notably, starting in 2014, Prof. Zhengli began to win particularly large sums of grant funding for the express purpose of researching and experimenting with coronaviruses — often receiving numerous, overlapping grants for the same time period. What’s just as interesting is where a lot of this funding originated — the US government. On January 6, 2014, Prof. Zhengli received a US$665,000 grant from the National Institute of Health for a study named [i]The Ecology of Bat Coronaviruses and the Risk of Future Coronavirus Emergence[/i] (NIAID R01 AI1 10964) and then four days later on January 10, 2014, an additional US$559,500 grant from the United States Agency of International Development for research studied entitled [i]Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT 2_China[/i] (Project No. AID-OAA-A-14–00102).[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]On top of these lucrative American grants she concurrently received similarly significant grants from the National Basic Research program of China, the Chinese Academy of Science, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and from the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences totaling over US$2,500,000 for researching interspecies transmission of zoonotic viruses, the identification, genetic evolution and pathogenesis of bat viruses, the genetic variation of pathogens in Africa, the evolution mechanism of the adaptation of bat SARS-related coronaviruses to host receptor molecules, the risk of interspecies infection, genetic evolution and transmission mechanism of important bat-borne viruses, and pathogen biology studies on novel swine coronaviruses.[/color]

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[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176)]In just the past five years alone, Prof. Zhengli Shi has almost US$10 million in grants to study coronaviruses.[/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]We can quite safely conclude that when it comes to interspecies coronaviruses, Professor Zhengli Shi is a bona fide Jedi master. In fact, her Wikipedia page credits her and her colleague, Cui Jie, with the actual discovery that the SARS virus originated in bats. Her noted “Research Interests” on her C.V. include “Discovery of unknown viruses in wild animals especially bats, molecular epidemiology of emerging zoonotic viruses, and interspecies infection mechanism of zoonotic viruses.” Prof. Zhengli appears to be one of the world’s leading bat virologists — and most definitely the leading bat virologist in China. Indeed, her C.V. explicitly states,[/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)][i]“Prof. Zhengli Shi ’s researches focus on the molecular epidemiology and interspecies infection discovery and characterization of novel viruses in bats and other wildlife. She has gain [sic] rich expertise on pathogen biology of coronaviruses and other emerging viruses of bat origin, virus discovery, virus evolution, and development of diagnostic technologies for emerging viruses. Prof Shi has identified ultimately the animal origin of SARS, by discovering genetically diverse bat SARS related coronaviruses (SARSr CoV), isolating bat SARSr CoVs highly homologous to SARS CoV that are able to the same receptor [sic] as SARS CoV, and revealing the potential recombination origin of SARS CoV. She has discovered a large number of novel viruses from Chinese bat populations, including viruses with potential public health significance.”[/i][/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]Unsurprisingly, Prof. Zhengli has been featured as a key presenter at over two dozen international virology conferences, the latest being [i]From SARS to SADS: predict of emerging infectious diseases[/i], held at UC Berkeley in the summer of 2018. Her presentations at the next five most recent conferences [i]all relate specifically to the genetic evolution and interspecies infection of bat coronaviruses. [/i]A complete list of Prof. Zhengli’s conference presentations may be found in Appendix B.[/color]

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[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176)]Nearly all of Prof. Zhengli’s recent conference presentations relate to bat coronaviruses. Do you believe in coincidences?[/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]Prof. Zhengli has been or is currently a professional member of the Chinese Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2000–2016), the Chinese Society for Microbiology (2002-present), the American Society for Microbiology (2007-present), and the Scientific Committee of the DIVERSITAS ecoHEALTH Core Project (2014–2016). She has served on the Editorial Board of [i]Virologica Sinica[/i] (2016–2016), on the Editorial Board of Journal of [i]Medical Virology[/i] (2015–2017), and on the Editorial Board of [i]Virology[/i] (2017–2019). She was Associate Editor of [i]Virology Journal[/i] (2016–2018), and Editor-in-Chief of [i]Virologica Sinica[/i] (2017–2019). Prof. Zhengli is also the recipient of numerous, prestigious awards and honors, including the Natural Science Award of Hubei Province, China (First Prize and Second Prize), Outstanding Scientist of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Outstanding Research Article on Natural Science (Grand Prize and Second Prize).[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)][b]OK, but how is Prof. Zhengli relevant to the current new outbreak of Coronavirus 2019-nCoV?[/b][/color]

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[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176)]Coronavirus 2019-nCoV outbreak in Wuhan, China — where the National Biosafety Laboratory is located — causes a massive quarantine of 11 million citizens.[/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]Chinese scientists, researchers, and doctors examining the emergent 2019-nCoV Coronavirus report that the new viral menace appears to be “a recombinant virus between the bat coronavirus and an origin-unknown coronavirus. The recombination occurred within the viral spike glycoprotein, which recognizes cell surface receptor.” But Prof. Zhengli appears to have worked with recombinant Coronavirus derivations involving viral spike proteins for over a decade at Wuhan Institute of Virology, all the way back to 2006 and up to as recently as December, 2019 — [i]the very month that 2019-nCoV Coronavirus was first reported as having infected visitors at Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market just down the road from her laboratory![/i][/color]

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[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176)]The day before the Coronavirus 2019-nCoV outbreak, this report was published. Do you believe in coincidences?[/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]In fact, [b][i]on the day before[/i][/b] the new coronavirus would find its first victims just 8.6 miles away at the market on December 12, 2019, Prof. Zhengli and her team published the study entitled [i]Molecular mechanism for antibody-dependent enhancement of coronavirus entry on December 11, 2019. [/i]The abstract reads,[/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)][i]“Coronavirus spike protein mediates viral entry into cells by first binding to a receptor on host cell surface and then fusing viral and host membranes. Our study reveals a novel molecular mechanism for antibody-enhanced viral entry and can guide future vaccination and antiviral strategies. This study reveals complex roles of antibodies in viral entry and can guide future vaccine design and antibody-based drug therapy.”[/i][/color][/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)][color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]And [b][i]immediately[/i] [i]after[/i][/b] this study was published — literally the following day — the first victims became infected with what would soon be named Coronavirus 2019-nCoV began to get infected…just a few miles away from Prof. Zhengli’s laboratory. And as [i]The Sun[/i] reports, victims of the new coronavirus are infected via a strong binding affinity to a human protein called ACE2,” in precisely the identical manner as Prof. Zhengli’s just-discovered “novel molecular mechanism” identified (or engineered) literally weeks if not days before. [i]Do you believe in coincidences?[/i][/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)][b]Let’s say that’s just a coincidence Prof. Zhengli published a study or two specifically on bat coronaviruses. Have there been others?[/b][/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)][i]How much time you got?[/i] The above study, specifically relating to human host cell binding and entry of coronavirus infection, and published [i]the day before[/i]the first viral infections were reported at a location adjacent Prof. Zhengli’s laboratory, is [i]far[/i] from the only study in which she has directed on the subject. The scientist’s entire virology history is rife with hands-on experience with coronaviruses, with especial attention devoted to understanding their spike protein properties, as related to potentiality of human cell entry and infection. In June 2016’s study, [i]Bat Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Like Coronavirus WIV1 Encodes an Extra Accessory Protein, ORFX, Involved in Modulation of the Host Immune Response[/i] she writes that what was important was that bats “harbor genetically diverse SARS-like coronaviruses (SL-CoVs), and some of them have the potential for interspecies transmission.” She further states that her team created a “reverse genetics system” that would be helpful for “study of the pathogenesis of this group of viruses and to develop therapeutics for future control of emerging SARS-like infections.”[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]In a letter to the editor of [i]SCIENCE CHINA Life Sciences[/i] published in November, 2017, entitled [i]Cross-neutralization of SARS coronavirus-specific antibodies against bat SARS-like coronaviruses[/i], Prof. Zhengli warns that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is considered to be an emerging zoonotic pathogen crossing species barriers to infect humans, and that the spike protein of the virus’ RNA genome plays a key role in human cellular entry.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]In that same month, the results of a study Prof. Zhengli conducted, [i]Serological evidence of bat SARS-related coronavirus infection in humans, China[/i] indicated that some SARSr-CoVs may have high potential to infect human cells, without the necessity for an intermediate host.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]In 2016, one of the Directors at Wuhan Institute of Virology posted the annual [i]Director’s Message[/i][i],[/i] of which the following finding was the top announcement: “The live SARS-like coronavirus SL-CoV-WIV1 has been isolated for the first time from the bat droppings; and such virus has been confirmed to invade the host cells through the ACE2 of human beings, civets and Rhinolophus sinicus. The research result has so far provided the most convincing evidence to the view that Rhinolophus sinicus is the natural host of SARS-CoV (Nature, 2013).” [i]Does this not sound precisely like Coronavirus 2019-nCoV, which invades the host cells through the ACE2 protein? [/i]At any rate, since Prof. Zhengli is Senior Scientist and Principal Investigator of both the Emerging Viruses Group and the National Biosafety Laboratory, this is squarely her turf; the current outbreak seems amazingly similar.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]In a study conducted in September of 2015, [i]Two Mutations Were Critical for Bat-to-Human Transmission of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus[/i], Prof. Zhengli and team successfully achieved viral entry (bat-to-human transmission)of bat coronavirus HKU4 via its spike protein by performing two small mutations. Doing so also helped explain how MERS coronavirus was able to infect humans as well.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]It was in 2015’s study, [i]Isolation and Characterization of a Novel Bat Coronavirus Closely Related to the Direct Progenitor of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome[/i][i] Coronavirus[/i] that Prof. Zhengli and team highlighted “the likelihood of future bat coronavirus emergence in humans” by isolating a new bat coronavirus closer to SARS-CoV in genomic sequence, particularly in its spike gene. “Cell entry and susceptibility studies indicated that this virus can…infect animal and human cell lines,” they concluded.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]And in 2010’s [i]Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) proteins of different bat species confer variable susceptibility to SARS-CoV entry[/i] Prof Zhengli and her team of scientists “extended [their] previous study to ACE2 molecules from seven additional bat species and tested their interactions with human SARS-CoV spike protein using both HIV-based pseudotype and live SARS-CoV infection assays.”[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]Even earlier in 2010, Prof. Zhengli published, [i]Bat and virus[/i], a keystone study identifying bats “as a natural reservoir of emerging and reemerging infectious pathogens,” emphasizing that an astonishing amount (more than 70, at the time) and genetic diversity of viruses isolated from the bat have been identified in different populations throughout the world. She stresses that many viruses were found in apparently healthy bats, suggesting that bats may have a particularly robust immune system or “antiviral activity against virus infections.”[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]In 2009’s [i]Immunogenicity difference between the SARS coronavirus and the bat SARS-like coronavirus spike (S) proteins[/i], Prof. Zhengli and her team concluded “SARS-like coronavirus (SL-CoV) in bats have a similar genomic organization to the human SARS-CoV.” And notably, that this work “provides useful information for future development of differential serologic diagnosis and vaccines for coronaviruses with different S [spike] protein sequences.”[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]Prof. Zhengli’s research in 2009’s [i]Differential stepwise evolution of SARS coronavirus functional proteins in different host species[/i] produced results that supported the hypothesis that “SARS-CoV originated from bats and that the spill over into civets and humans were more recent events.”[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]Moving even further back in time to 2007, Prof. Zhengli worked on [i]Determination and application of immunodominant regions of SARS coronavirus spike and nucleocapsid proteins recognized by sera from different animal species[/i], producing assays that would be a “useful tool to trace the origin and transmission of SARS-CoV and to minimise the risk of animal-to-human transmission.”[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]It appears that 2006 was the year Prof. Zhengli first researched recombinant spike proteins along with other distinctive genome sequences resulting from the interaction of bat, palm civet, and human isolates. “Full-length genome sequences of two SARS-like coronaviruses in horseshoe bats and genetic variation analysis.” Basically, she is tremendously versatile and adept in her research whenever she encounters these recombinant spikes proteins in viral interactions.[/color]
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137)]Moreover, it’s not just coronaviruses from bats that she and her team have discovered and explored, but also diverse novel viruses/virus antibodies in bats, including adenoviruses, adeno-associated viruses, circoviruses, paramyxoviruses, and filoviruses. In fact, Prof. Zhengli has coauthored over an astounding 130 publications on viral pathogen identification, diagnosis and epidemiology — nearly all of which commandeered at Wuhan Institute of Virology where the National Biosafety Laboratory is located and where she reigns as Head of the Department. In fact, on the World Society for Virology website, Prof. Zhengli’s profile confirms that one of her great contributions was to “uncover genetically diverse SARS-like coronaviruses in bats with her international collaborators and provide unequivocal evidence that bats are natural reservoirs of SARS-CoV.” Thus, her adeptness in the specialized field of bat virology — especially where transmission to humans is concerned — is inarguable.[/color][/color]