Posts Misrepresent Mouse Study of Pangolin Virus

SciCheck Digest A study showed a type of lab mouse is highly susceptible to a coronavirus derived from pangolins, a scaly, cat-sized mammal. This doesn’t mean the virus is dangerous to humans. The virus is related to the one that causes COVID-19 but did not descend from it, contrary to claims that it is a “mutant COVID-19 strain.” Nor did scientists “craft” the virus. Full Story Biologists sometimes work with lab mice engineered to have human-like tissues, cells or genes. Researchers studying viruses may use mice that have been genetically modified to have human receptors on their cells that allow entry of viruses that infect humans. While these “humanized” mice can give insights into viruses and what treatments or vaccines might work against them, the mice are not that similar to humans. A virus that kills a humanized mouse will not necessarily be dangerous to people. A recent study of a version of a pangolin virus in one of these modified mouse models has been misrepresented. Pangolins are mammals prized in Asia for their meat and unusual scales. A preliminary version of the study was posted Jan. 4 as a preprint that has not been peer-reviewed. The researchers posted an...