Evidence that the pandemic virus was made in a lab

 

Everyone knows that the Chinese have been less than forthcoming about the origin of the pandemic virus (SARS-CoV-2).  An article in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2202769119 argues that US data, which hasn’t been released, and some 290 pages of which has been redacted could shed a good deal of light on the subject (without any help from China).  One of the authors is an economist, but the other has serious biochemical chops — https://www.pharmacology.cuimc.columbia.edu/profile/neil-l-harrison-phd.

Basically a variety of US institutions (see the paper — it’s freely available) have been working with the lab at Wuhan for years modifying the virus, long before the pandemic.  The paper names the names etc. etc. and is quite detailed, but I want to explain the evidence that the virus could have been produced (by human modification) at the Wuhan lab.  It has to do with a site in a viral protein which says ‘cut here’.

Here is more background than many readers will need, but the virus has affected us all and I want to make it accessible to as many as possible.

Proteins are linear strings of amino acids, just as this post is a linear sequence of letters, spaces and punctuation.

We have fewer amino acids (20 to be exact) than letters  and to save space each one has a one letter abbreviation (A for alanine V for valine, etc. etc.).  The spike protein (the SARS-CoV-2 protein binding to the receptor  for it on our cells) is quite long (1,273 amino acids all in a row).

Our genome codes for 588  proteins (called proteases) whose job it is to cut up other proteins. Obviously, it would be a disaster if they worked indiscriminately.  So each cuts at a particular sequence of amino acids. Think of the protease as a key and the sequence as a lock.  One protease called furin cuts in the middle of an 8 amino acid sequence RRAR’SVAS (R stands for aRginine and S for Serine).  This is called the furin cleavage site (FCS)

A paper (The origins of SARS-CoV-2: A critical review. Cell 184, 4848–4856 (2021) argued that the amino acid sequence of the FCS in SARS-CoV-2 is an unusual, nonstandard sequence for an FCS and that nobody in a laboratory would design such a novel FCS.  So, like many, I skimmed the paper and accepted its conclusions, as Cell is one of the premier molecular biology journals.

But this is flat out wrong.  “The amino acid sequence of the FCS in SARS-CoV-2 also exists in a human protein (the ENaC α subunit)  where it is known to be functional and has been extensively studied.” Bravo to Harrison for looking further.

Even worse — “The insertion of such FCS sequences into SARS-like viruses was a specific goal of work proposed by the EHA-WIV-UNC partnership within a 2018 grant proposal (“DEFUSE”) that was submitted to the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The 2018 proposal to DARPA was not funded, but we do not know whether some of the proposed work was subsequently carried out in 2018 or 2019, perhaps using another source of funding.”

Moreover — “The exact FCS sequence present in SARS-CoV-2 has recently been introduced into the spike protein of SARS-CoV-1 (the original SARS virus hitting Hong Kong)  in the laboratory, in an elegant series of experiments, with predictable consequences in terms of enhanced viral transmissibility and pathogenicity.”

So there you have it.   The 8 amino acid sequence (RRAR’SVAS) sticking out like a sore thumb in the genome of SARS-CoV-2  essentially saying to furin “open’here.”

The point of the paper, is that there is a lot of US work, publicly funded, yet not in the public domain which would go a long way to clear things up.

One final quote “The NIH has resisted the release of important evidence, such as the grant proposals and project reports of EHA, and has continued to redact materials released under FOIA, including a remarkable 290-page redaction in a recent FOIA release.”

Sounds like Watergate doesn’t it?

 

Watch this space