In a Wuhan-style study, Chinese scientists are experimenting with a mutant strain of COVID-19 that has a 100% death streak in “humanized” mice.
The deadly virus, known as GX_P2V, attacked the brains of mice that were designed to reflect a genetic makeup similar to that of people, according to a study shared last week in Beijing.
“This underscores the risk of GX_P2V spillover to 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 discovered in Malaysian pangolins in 2017, three years before the pandemic.
All mice infected with the virus died in just eight days, which the researchers said was a “surprisingly” fast mortality rate.
Chinese scientists experimented with GX_P2V, a mutated strain of a coronavirus found in Malaysian pangolins in 2017. AFP via Getty Images
GX_P2V had infected the lungs, bones, eyes, tracheas and brains of the dead mice, the latter of which was severe enough to eventually cause the animals’ death.
In the days before their deaths, the mice had lost weight rapidly, displayed a hunched posture, and moved extremely slowly.
Most disturbing of all is that his eyes turned completely white the day before he died.
All of the infected mice died within eight days, according to the study. filin174 – stock.adobe.com
Although terrifying, the study is the first of its kind to report a 100% mortality rate in mice infected by the COVID-19-related virus, far surpassing previously reported results from another study, the researchers wrote.
More importantly, the study results do not clearly indicate how it would affect humans.
Francois Balloux, an epidemiology expert at the Institute of Genetics at University College London, called the research “terrible” and “scientifically totally useless.”
Dr. Gennadi Glinsky, a retired professor of medicine at Stanford, wrote: “This madness must stop before it is too late.” Africa Study – stock.adobe.com
“I don’t see anything of vague interest that can be learned by forcibly infecting a strange breed of humanized mice with a random virus. On the contrary, I could see how these things can go wrong,” says the professor. wrote in X.
“The preprint does not specify the biosafety level or biosafety precautions used for the research,” he continued.
“The absence of this information raises the worrying possibility that some or all of this research, like the research in Wuhan in 2016-2019 that likely caused the Covid-19 pandemic, may have been conducted recklessly without minimal biosafety containment and essential practices for research with potential pandemic pathogens.
Richard H. Ebright Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Ruger University endorsed Balloux’s concerns with a simple: “okay”.
Dr. Gennadi Glinsky, retired professor of medicine at Stanford, wrote: “This madness must stop before it is too late.”
The 2024 study does not appear to have any link to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was the center of lab leak theories surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the summer, U.S. intelligence agencies found no direct evidence that the lab leaked the coronavirus, although they 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: vtt.edu.vn