Science and Technology Daily reporter Zhang Jiaxing
21 months! Since breaking into human vision in early 2020, "Where did the new crown virus come from" has remained an unsolved mystery
It's difficult to trace the source of the virus, and everyone knows it
Virus traceability is more than "difficult"! October 1, China Ke Xueyuan Academy of Sciences , Chinese Center for Disease Control of the main Rengao Fu team, Beijing University of Chemical Technology Tong Yi Gang team in the "Lancet" international top Journal issued a document review traceable history at the same time, pointed out that the new crown virus traceability is a " Protracted war" requires time, international resources and cooperation
Academician of the Academy of Sciences "The original intention of the article is to let people know, traceability is not a problem that can be solved at once, often take a long time
Dean Is there any successful traceability?
Is there any successful traceability? Has there been any successful traceability in history? In other words, has the source of the virus been found?
" 'Success' is a word difficult to accurately describe the results traceable
AIDS This result was accepted 20 years, until 2008, "Nature" published direct evidence one from the Zaire capital, Kinshasa, and actually prove that AIDS drugs in fact, after 1908 years ago, has spread in the population
AIDS "The source currently believed may be overturned by new evidence
An open mind means that we must always prudently study and judge and accept new evidence.
the truth For example, the timeline of human coronavirus HKU1, which is also a coronavirus, has been continuously extended under the guidance of new evidence .
Hongkong Constant new evidence has pushed the origin of the human coronavirus HKU1 forward 10 years from the date of discovery! The new coronavirus is likely to have the same "history of human invasion", which needs to be verified by further virus traceability work
In the paper, the team of Academician Gao Fu cited a large number of references to indicate the time points for the traceability of different viruses, and each of the documents showed a series of strong evidence support
academician "The traceability of the new coronavirus should be the same
May it never be found?
May it never be found? Could the source of the new coronavirus be found forever?
"Geographical origin of the virus may not rely on the initial patient, in some cases, may never find 0 patients
AIDS In other words, if you only focus on the "starting point", it will be difficult to lead the traceability process forward
"Each advancement requires long-term and extensive sample accumulation
In addition to finding clues in human samples, clues in animal samples are also the key to making up the "animal-to-human" step
.
The source viruses in nature may still multiply in wild animals, and it takes time and even luck for people to find them
.
For example, the WIV1 virus carried by the Chinese chrysanthemum bat, which is believed to have originated from SARS, is only highly similar to the SARS virus when found, and is not exactly the same.
It still needs further verification after it is found
.
In summary, may the source of the new coronavirus be never found?
The answer to this question depends on two aspects:
One is the direction.
If you only focus on the "starting point" and reject clues from all over the world, then the source of the new crown virus may never be found
.
One is in terms of time.
If the traceability of the new coronavirus is too short-sighted and hasty, and hopes to complete the task in a short time, for example, only considering sequence similarity and turning a blind eye to other scientific facts, then the conclusions drawn by the traceability of the virus will also be difficult to withstand time.
Test
.
It can be seen that virus traceability is more than "difficult"! How to track the virus?
The paper pointed out that, first of all, we must have a full understanding of the "protracted war"
.
"Virus traceability often takes years or even decades
.
" Tong Yigang said
.
This is not because scientists are "grinding foreign work", but because there is indeed too much work to be done-
Patients with similar symptoms before the pandemic should be re-evaluated and samples should be re-tested;
Global blood and tissue banks should conduct retrospective serological or genomics research;
Countries or regions where evidence of the virus appeared before the outbreak should conduct an epidemiological investigation of the disease;
A comprehensive genome study should be conducted on animal species susceptible to virus infection.
.
.
Obviously, these tasks cannot be done by a single team
.
Therefore, the paper emphasizes that open thinking and close international cooperation are essential to trace the origin of any virus
.
Note: The co-first author of the paper is Liu Wenli, a doctoral student from Beijing University of Chemical Technology
.
Link to the paper: https://
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