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The discovery may help scientists stay ahead of COVID-19.

Scientists have released new findings into how COVID-19 infects cells, which may explain how coronaviruses are affecting different species.

During the pandemic, scientific studies often discussed how COVID-19 infiltrated cells by hijacking a protein called ACE2, which is found in human cells.

However, the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine has published research revealing that ACE2 is not required for COVID-19 infection.

The research says that this suggests that coronaviruses can enter cells using multiple ‘doors’, which may also explain how it is infecting other species.

COVID-19 may no longer be considered to have the same threat it once had, however its evolution and effect on immunocompromised and elderly people means that scientists are continuing to study it closely.

Although scientists had acknowledged COVID-19’s ability to enter cells by using the protein ACE2 as a ‘front door’, the virus’ ability to bind with other proteins prompted the research group to investigate whether cells without the ACE2 protein may provide alternative points of entry.

The studies revealed that, while ACE2 remained the most efficient route, other proteins could provide alternative entrances.

Peter Kasson, a researcher from UVA’s Departments of Molecular Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, says that this key discovery may reveal how coronaviruses have become good at spreading to other species.

It could also warn us of coronaviruses’ future potential to evolve to become more infectious.

He said: “The virus that causes COVID-19 uses ACE2 as the front door to infect cells, but we’ve found that if the front door is blocked, it can also use the back door or the windows,

“This means the virus can keep spreading as it infects a new species until it adapts to use a particular species’ front door. So we have to watch out for new viruses doing the same thing to infect us.”

The full study has been published in the journal Chemical Science.

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