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COVID-19 has now infected nearly 115,000 people, killing more than 4,000 in the process in a devastating outbreak which is days away from being declared a pandemic. Last night, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conteimposed a nation-wide lockdown and the numbers in Spain almost doubled in a single day as the infection spreads through Europe at an alarming rate. A study released by Chinese scientists last week found the origin of coronavirus could have come from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a level four biosafety laboratory 12km from the epicentre of the outbreak.
Now, a new investigation, titled “Coronavirus 2019-nCoV contains a furin-like cleavage site absent in CoV of the same clade,” suggests it has been genetically engineered too.
Published on ScienceDirect this month, the paper reads: “In 2019, a new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infecting humans has emerged in Wuhan, China.
“Its genome has been sequenced and the genomic information promptly released.
“Despite a high similarity with the genome sequence of SARS-CoV, we identified a peculiar furin-like cleavage site of the 2019-nCoV, lacking in the other SARS-like CoVs.
“In this article, we discuss the possible functional consequences of this cleavage site in the viral cycle, pathogenicity and its potential implication in the development of antivirals.”
Furin is a “highly expressed” protein found in the lungs of humans that could have been used to activate a virus that previously could have only been passed between animals.
The experts believe this “peculiar furin” is an anomaly and could be used to “successfully exploit” enzymes that innate immunity in humans.
The paper goes on to explain how scientist have not seen anything like this in previous strains.
But, it was not just a single anomaly.
READ MORE: Coronavirus: Experiment gone wrong? Two Wuhan lab leaks exposed by Chinese scientists
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