Coronaviruses carried by bats can infect human cells through more than one route, news research has found. In a study published in Nature on Wednesday, researchers from the UK and Kenya analysed the spike proteins of coronaviruses carried by bats in Kenya. It is these “receptor binding” areas which coronaviruses use to enter and infect human cells. They found that a coronavirus, dubbed CcCoV-KY43, which was found in heart-nosed bats in southeastern Kenya, has evolved a new way of binding to human cells; one that is distinct from the mechanism used by SARS-COV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic. While there is no evidence the virus has jumped to people yet, the findings have implications for pandemic preparedness in Kenya and around the world. It suggests that the Kenyan virus itself could pose a threat and that coronaviruses generally could evolve multiple different ways of attacking animal cells.…