New Coronavirus Discovered in Chinese Bats Sparks Alarm

A new bat coronavirus that has the capacity to spread to humans, similar to the one that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, has been discovered.

HKU5-CoV-2 was found by a Chinese research team led by virologist Shi Zhengli, known as "Batwoman" for her work on coronaviruses, especially at the Wuhan Institute, which has been at the center of the theory suggesting COVID-19 came from a lab leak—something Shi has denied.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told Newsweek: "CDC is aware of a publication about a new bat coronavirus, but there is no reason to believe it currently poses a concern to public health. The publication referenced demonstrates that the bat virus can use a human protein to enter cells in the laboratory, but they have not detected infections in humans.

"CDC will continue to monitor viral disease activity and provide important updates to the public."

Newsweek has contacted Shi for comment via email.

Why It Matters

Hundreds of coronaviruses exist but only a few can infect humans, including SARS, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome).

This new one (HKU5-CoV-2) uses the ACE2 receptor to infect organisms—SARS-CoV-2 also uses the ACE2 receptor for infection.

What is HKU5-CoV-2?

HKU5-CoV-2 is a coronavirus belonging to the merbecovirusgroup, which also includes the virus that causes MERS.

It has a higher potential to infect humans than other coronaviruses because of the way it binds to human ACE2, making it similar to SARS-CoV-2 and NL63 (a common cold virus).

Researchers came to this conclusion after using a technique called Cryo-EM, which uses a powerful microscope.

HKU5-CoV-2 was able to infect human cell cultures in the mini-human organ models the scientists used.

"Bat merbecoviruses, which are phylogenetically related to MERS-CoV, pose a high risk of spillover to humans, either through direct transmission or facilitated by intermediate hosts," the study says.

What To Know

The research, conducted by the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Guangzhou Laboratory and the Guangzhou Academy of Sciences, was published in the scientific journal Cell.

The study says that the potential for the virus to spillover into humans "remains to be investigated."

What People Are Saying

The study says: "Structural and functional analyses indicate that HKU5-CoV-2 has a better adaptation to human ACE2 than lineage 1 HKU5-CoV."

The researchers found that: "Authentic HKU5-CoV-2 infected human ACE2-expressing cell lines and human respiratory and enteric organoids. This study reveals a distinct lineage of HKU5-CoVs in bats that efficiently use human ACE2 and underscores their potential zoonotic risk."

What Happens Next

Newsweek has contacted the United States Department of Health and Human Services, via email, for comment.

It remains to be seen whether this discovery will cause any disease in humans.

Reference

Chen, Jing and Zhang, Wei and Li, Yang and Liu, Chen and Dong, Tianyi and Chen, Huiyu and Wu, Chunguang and Su, Jia and Li, Bei and Zhang, Wei and Hu, Ben and Jia, Jingkun and Ma, Cheng-Bao and Zhu, Yan and He, Xiangyang and Li, Ang and Pan, Kaiyi and Lin, Haofeng and Zhang, Libiao and Yan, Huan and Zhou, Peng and Peng, Wei and Shi, Zhengli. Merbecovirus HKU5 Lineage 2 Discovered in Bats Utilizes Human ACE2 as Cell Receptor. Cell. https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(25)00144-8?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867425001448%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

Update 2/25/25, 10 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from the CDC.