The South China Seafood Market is not the only origin of the virus; Zhejiang vaccine research and development has entered the animal experiment stage; Zhong Nanshan's team detected the virus in urine

Guo Yipu from Yunaofeisi Quantum
Bit Report | Public Account QbitAI

As the COVID-19 pandemic is gradually brought under control, scientists are making more new progress in their research.

First, based on the study of 58 discovered virus haplotypes, researchers from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other institutions found that the South China Seafood Market was not the only origin of the virus;

Zhong Nanshan's team also found that in addition to feces, the virus is also present in the patient's urine, so protection needs to be more comprehensive;

Finally, there is another piece of good news. The vaccine developed in Zhejiang is already able to produce antibodies and has entered the animal experiment stage.

Huanan Seafood Market is not the origin of the virus

Research by the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Center for Conservation Biology of the Core Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Henry Hof College of Bio-Agriculture of Shaoguan University, the College of Forestry and Landscape Architecture of South China Agricultural University, and the Chinese Institute of Brain Science found that the South China Seafood Market is not the only origin of the new coronavirus.

At least 58 viral haplotypes are currently

At present, 58 virus haplotypes have been collected and can be summarized into 5 groups, including 3 ancient super-spreader haplotypes (H1, H3 and H13) and 2 new super-spreader haplotypes (H56 and mv2).

These five groups of viruses are spread to varying degrees in various places. Groups ABCDE in the figure correspond to the above five groups of viruses.

It can be seen that provinces such as Hubei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Chongqing and others are mainly in Group C, and the same is true in Singapore, Thailand and Germany.

The cases in Sichuan and Yunnan were infected with group B, which is similar to the cases in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Vietnam and South Korea.

The green Group A appeared in Guangdong and Japan.

Group D appeared in many places including Taiwan, France, Australia, and the United States.

There are Group E cases in Guangdong and the United States.

Of course, this is certainly not the total number of infected people due to limited data, and it should be noted that there are many similar different haplotypes in each group.

These haplotypes are based on 120 mutation sites, and similar to the evolution of other organisms, they are derived from each other.

Human-to-human transmission began as early as November

Based on the above complex virus data and combined with coronaviruses in bats, the researchers inferred that the transmission derivative relationship between different haplotype groups is as follows:

Those related to the South China Seafood Market are the red group C, but there is also a blue group B sample in Hubei.

Through evolutionary relationships, we can see that H13 and H38, which are associated with the bat coronavirus RaTG13, are in group A and group B respectively, while group C from the South China Seafood Market is derived from group B. Combined with the onset time of the patients in the sample, this shows that the virus from the South China Seafood Market originated from somewhere else.

From this point of view, the path of transmission becomes clearer:

Long before the virus entered the South China Seafood Market, in late November or early December , the virus had already begun to spread from person to person, and there were several different types.

Among them, Group C entered the South China Seafood Market and grew and developed in the seafood market, surpassing its predecessors Group A and Group B, and quickly "grew and developed" and spread to the whole Hubei.

There are other groups of viruses in other places in Wuhan outside the seafood market, and these rhinoviruses have been caught in China and other countries on all continents around the world.

Paper address: http://www.chinaxiv.org/abs/202002.00033

Finally, there are some other research developments related to the epidemic.

Zhejiang: The first batch of vaccines has produced antibodies

At the Zhejiang Provincial New Coronavirus Pneumonia Prevention and Control Work Press Conference held yesterday afternoon, it was announced that the first batch of vaccines have produced antibodies and have entered the animal experiment stage. The recombinant adenovirus vector vaccine has begun to cultivate the recombinant virus and animal experiments will be carried out in the near future.

However, after animal experiments, the vaccine still needs to undergo human trials before it can be approved and eventually produced and marketed.

If this process is not rigorous, it can easily cause large-scale adverse reactions or the vaccine may not be effective. Therefore, the vaccine development process may continue for a long time, and everyone should still take good protection.

Zhong Nanshan's team found viruses in urine

After isolating the new coronavirus from stool specimens of patients with COVID-19, the team of Professor Zhao Jincun, an expert from Academician Zhong Nanshan's team and deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases, discovered that the virus was also present in the urine of patients with COVID-19.

The discovery was made in a biosafety level 3 laboratory jointly built by the Guangzhou Customs Technology Center, and the patient urine tested came from the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University.

Therefore, the research team reminds citizens to pay more attention to personal and family hygiene, such as washing hands after defecation, paying attention to unobstructed sewers, and covering the toilet lid when flushing the toilet to avoid possible transmission.