Chinese researchers find bat virus enters human cells via same pathway as COVID

In lab experiments, the bat virus, HKU5-CoV-2, infected human cells with high ACE2 levels in test tubes and in models of human intestines and airways.

A newly discovered bat coronavirus uses the same cell-surface protein to gain entry into human cells as the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, raising the possibility that it could someday spread to humans, Chinese researchers have reported.