Overview
- Researchers report that spike proteins from a heart‑nosed bat virus lineage known as KY43 can attach to human CEACAM6 and enable cell entry in receptor‑screen assays.
- KY43 has been identified in heart‑nosed bats in East Africa, including regions of Kenya, eastern Sudan and northern Tanzania.
- The team avoided live‑virus work by synthesizing alphacoronavirus spike proteins from sequence data and screening them against a large library of human receptors.
- Study authors and independent experts say cell entry is necessary but not sufficient for infection, and preliminary checks have found no signs of KY43 spreading in people.
- The findings suggest alphacoronaviruses may use a broader set of human receptors than previously thought, prompting calls for targeted surveillance in East Africa and early countermeasure research.