RCMP uncovers alleged plot by 2 Montreal men to illegally sell drones, equipment to Libya
The RCMP says it has uncovered a plot by two men in Montreal to sell Chinese drones and military equipment to Libya illegally.
It’s been several years since scientists suspected the original strain of COVID-19 made the jump from bats to humans, and in that time, the virus has mutated and transformed into numerous variants.
But has it changed so much that the bats scientists believe may have served as COVID-19’s original incubator are now immune to its effects?
According to a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Royal Society Open Science this month, the answer is no — bats are still at risk of catching COVID-19 from us.
And the possibility of transmission across many other species is still a very real, researchers say.
The study found that bats haven’t evolved defences against COVID-19, and are capable of being infected through largely the same process as humans: the spike proteins on SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) binding to specific receptors to enter host cells.
“We were hoping to see really cool adaptive evolution happening as the virus got more used to humans and less used to bats, but we actually saw that there wasn’t a whole lot of change,” Gregory Babbitt, an associate professor with the Rochester Institute of Technology and one of the authors of the study, said in a press release.
“Because this binding site has not evolved very much, there’s really not much stopping it from transmitting from humans to bats. If you look at the phylogenetic relationships of bats to humans, we’re pretty far apart on the mammalian tree. So it suggests that there would be pretty widespread cross-species infectivity, and the literature has shown there’s been a lot of evidence of that.”
In humans, the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein attaches to a receptor known as ACE2 – the very same receptor that exists in many bats of the genus Rhinolophus, also known as horseshoe bats – on the surface of cells.
However, evolving variants have developed mutations, many within the spike protein, which better allow them to evade vaccine-based immunity in humans, as well as immunity built up from previous cases.
In order to see if any of these newer variants were no longer able to infect bats, researchers ran all current variants of concern (VOC) against computer modelling of the binding receptors in these bats. These included the original strain of COVID-19, Alpha, Beta and Delta, as well as Omicron variants BA.1, BA.2 and BA.4/BA.5, among others.
“It would be dangerous to do experiments where we reinfected bats with human viral strains, so our computer-based simulations offered a much safer alternative,” Babbitt said.
Although the study found that bats could still be infected with the virus, there were differences in the way the different variants approached the body.
Researchers found that all of the VOC were better at binding to a specific type of ACE2 receptor called hACE2, compared to bACE2, while the original strain of the virus saw no difference between which of these receptors it was capable of targeting.
Omicron variants have more mutations within their spike proteins, which affected how they attached to the receptors.
The leading theory for where SARS-CoV-2 comes from is that it jumped to humans from bats, which have served as the animal intermediary for other viruses in the past.
Although the vast majority of the transmission of COVID-19 has been human-to-human transmission, we’ve seen other animals catch the virus from humans as well during the course of the pandemic, including gorillas, tigers, minks and housecats.
It may seem irrelevant to worry about bats being able to catch new strains of COVID-19 when humans are still dealing with its ravages in our communities, but understanding the potential cross-species transmission that a virus is capable of is part of trying to battle it, researchers say.
“As a result of the virus being able to infect multiple species and also being able to jump hosts, there are concerns that the introduction and circulation of new virus strains in humans could result in modifications of transmissibility or virulence and decreased treatment and vaccine efficacy,” the study stated.
“These findings provide evidence that recent human SARS-CoV-2 variants may re-infect bats and that the extensive species diversity of bats may also have profound effects on SARS-CoV-2 evolution in the future.”
The researchers added that bats are not that genetically different from us, no different than between most pets and livestock, and that bats and other mammals “could readily become host reservoirs that further promote the evolution of persistent cross-species infectivty as well.”
The RCMP says it has uncovered a plot by two men in Montreal to sell Chinese drones and military equipment to Libya illegally.
A group of demonstrators were kicked out of the legislature after a second NDP motion calling for unanimous consent to reverse a ban on the keffiyeh failed to pass.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
The U.S. Justice Department announced a US$138.7 million settlement Tuesday with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016, a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue to prey on victims before his arrest.
A 35-year-old man wanted in connection with the murder of Toronto resident 29-year-old Sharmar Powell-Flowers nine months ago has topped the list of the BOLO program’s 25 most wanted fugitives across Canada, police announced Tuesday.
The Canadian Medical Association is asking the federal government to reconsider its proposed changes to capital gains taxation, arguing it will affect doctors' retirement savings.
Canadian pet owners are finding companionship beyond dogs and cats. Tigers, alligators, scorpions and tarantulas are among some of the exotic pets they are keeping in private homes, which pose risks to public safety and animal welfare, advocates say.
Police in the U.K. are searching for a group of suspects seen on video using a forklift to steal a cash machine from a bank.
A tower crane operator alerted emergency crews after noticing a fire on a construction site in Halifax Tuesday morning.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.