According to the Beijing University of Chemical Technology investigation, the virus was comparable to Sars-CoV-2 and was detected in pangolins in 2017 prior to the Covid outbreak.
Chinese scientists are working with a lethal virus that has a 100% fatality rate in mice. In a study published on bioRxiv, the lethal virus, named GX_P2V, targeted the brains of mice with genetics meant to resemble humans. Within five days of infection, the researchers discovered that the mice lost significant weight, became lethargic, and their eyes became white. According to the study, they perished only eight days after being infected.
The scientists were surprised by the dramatic death rate.
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“This underscores a spillover risk of GX_P2V into humans and provides a unique model for understanding the pathogenic mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2-related viruses,” the scientists noted in their paper.
After analyzing the mice’s bodies, scientists discovered that the virus had invaded the lungs, bones, eyes, tracheas, and brains. The researchers decided that the brain infection was serious enough to kill the animals.
According to the Beijing University of Chemical Technology investigation, the virus was comparable to Sars-CoV-2 and was detected in pangolins in 2017 prior to the Covid outbreak.
The research team stated in the study that it is the first of its type to show a 100% mortality rate in mice infected with the coronavirus-related virus, surpassing previously published results from a different study.
Significantly, the study’s findings make it unclear how it may effect humans.
As soon as the study was published online, experts expressed worry. Francois Balloux, an epidemiology expert at the University College London’s Genetics Institute, described the study as “terrible” and “scientifically totally pointless”.
“I can’t think of anything remotely interesting that could be discovered by infecting a strange breed of humanized mice with an unknown virus. Conversely, I could understand how such things could go awry,” he remarked on X (previously Twitter).
Dr. Gennadi Glinsky, a retired professor of medicine at Stanford, wrote, “This madness must be stopped before it is too late.”
The 2024 study appears to have no connection to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was the focus of lab leak suspicions concerning the pandemic.
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