This test has been done in mice only (since no other animal was mentioned in the abstract).
If one follows the scientific method, this means whatever conclusion the authors make can only be extended to mice. Extrapolation to “mammals” is not present in the abstract implicitly or explicitly.
It’s not clear from the abstract that any human-made changes were made to the H5N1 either.
> samples from surviving mice on day 12 were also obtained through necropsy to measure viral titers.
"Recombinant viruses were generated using a pHW2000 plasmid-based reverse genetics system."
"Combining the R90K and H110Y mutations (22W_KY) resulted in a synergistic increase in thermal stability and maintained HA activity without measurable reduction even after 4 h at 52 °C."
"22 W HA and 22 W NA genes, along with six internal genomic segments (PB2, PB1, PA, NP, M, NS) from PR8 and a PB2 gene from 01310 containing the I66M, I109V, and I133V (MVV) mutations"
The study also confirmed enhanced antigen uptake and intracellular penetration in human cells:
"The highest level of intracellular entry was observed for BEI_22W_KY, confirming its superior effectiveness in penetrating cells."
Ref: https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12985-...
What's not supported from the title is that they only tested in mice. But they do keep mentioning "mammalian adaptation" so it might just be that it's expected all mammals to suffer the same fate without certain adaptations.
So a lab in fact has created a highly contagious flu virus (far higher than regular flu) through gain of function research which has indeed killed 100% of the subjects which contracted it even if they were only mice.
This paper does not appear to support that. They indicate the source was an existing, in the wild virus.
>> We isolated an HPAI H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b virus from wild birds in Korea with 96% E and 4% K at amino acid position 627 of PB2. To investigate the genomic characteristics of this clade regarding mammalian adaptation, we studied the replication and transmission of the H5N1 virus in mice.
They infected mice with a wild strain that already was pre-positioned to better infect mammals used super high viral loads for that then watched as the mutations which promote mammalian infection evolved and exposed challenge mice to the newly developed strain.
ortusdux•8mo ago