ALECOMM

As early as in 2008, a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) revealed, "We report the design, synthesis, and recovery of the largest synthetic replicating life form, a 29.7-kb bat severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-like coronavirus (Bat-SCoV), a likely progenitor to the SARS-CoV epidemic."

The same author then elaborated that a SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses showed potential for human emergence in 2015.

In the abstract of the paper in 2008, the corresponding author of the paper, Ralph Baric, who has been studying coronaviruses for decades, declared that to test a possible route of emergence from the noncultivable Bat-SCoV to human SARS-CoV, they designed a consensus Bat-SCoV genome and replaced the Bat-SCoV Spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) with the SARS-CoV RBD (Bat-SRBD).

Bat-SRBD was infectious in cell culture and in mice and was efficiently neutralized by antibodies specifically for both bat and human CoV Spike proteins.

After a 30-year trial and research period, Baric was able to design and synthesize the SARS-like coronavirus. In the paper, the term "design, synthesis" refers to the creation of a virus using commercially synthesized DNA "fragments" instead of a natural virus. It's like assembling a generic lego. Not only do you have to assemble 30,000 huge pieces of genetic code, but you have to make it "alive" and capable of attacking cells. (Note: RNA virus manufacturing also requires reverse transcription, regeneration and reaping)

It took Baric nearly 30 years of research to cross the line between life and non-life. Since 1989, when he unveiled his work on reprogramming viruses, he has been exploring the use of molecular biology to analyze, manipulate and create coronaviruses, reprogramming, cloning, and modifying various viruses.

According to the data, since 1983, Baric has published more than 400 papers in his own name or as an advisor, including 268 papers on the coronavirus. After the outbreak of SARS in 2003, Baric's research funding increased significantly and he published several studies on the mechanism and treatment of the SARS and MERS viruses, receiving a large number of patents on the virus manufacturing technology.

Baric released another paper on Europe PMC, titled Compositions of coronaviruses with a recombination-resistant genome in 2006.

In the abstract of this paper, he said the present invention provides a cDNA of a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, recombinant SARS coronavirus vectors, and SARS coronavirus replicon particles.

Also provided are methods of making the compositions of this invention and methods of using the compositions as immunogens and/or vaccines and/or to express heterologous nucleic acids.

Meanwhile, researchers at Fort Detrick are among the inventors of his many granted patents. For example, the patent in the U.S. Patent Retrieval System also lists scientists at Fort Detrick as co-inventors, which makes it easier for them to share patents covertly, so the staff at Fort Detrick lab do not have to pay for them.

In 2015, one of Barics's major papers on bat coronaviruses was published on Nature.com. He stated that a SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence.

He explained that the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV)underscores the threat of cross-species transmission events leading to outbreaks in humans.

He examined the disease potential of a SARS-like virus, SHC014-CoV, currently circulating in Chinese horseshoe bat populations.

Using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system, he generated and characterized a chimeric virus expressing the spike of bat coronavirus SHC014 in a mouse-adapted SARS-CoV backbone.

The results indicated that group 2b viruses encoding the SHC014 spike in a wild-type backbone and can efficiently use multiple orthologs of the SARS receptor human angiotensin converting enzyme II (ACE2), replicate efficiently in primary human airway cells and achieve in vitro titers equivalent to epidemic strains of SARS-CoV.

Additionally, in vivo experiments demonstrate replication of the chimeric virus in mouse lungs with notable pathogenesis.

On the basis of these findings, he synthetically re-derived an infectious full-length SHC014 recombinant virus and demonstrate robust viral replication both in vitro and in vivo.

His work suggests a potential risk of SARS-CoV re-emergence from viruses currently circulating in bat populations. The emergence of SARS-CoV heralded a new era in the cross-species transmission of severe respiratory illness.

Source : http://stdaily.com/English/ChinaNews/2021-08/12/content_1212676.shtml