The Wuhan Institute of Virology used a method research flagged for potentially creating a “contagious pathogen” to assemble a monkeypox virus genome that allowed the virus to be identified through PCR tests. This research came mere months before the current outbreak of monkeypox that has global health authorities raising alarm.
The monkeypox study in question was first published in February of 2022. Authored by nine Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers and published in the lab’s quarterly scientific journal Virologica Sinica, the paper follows the wide-scale use of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests to identify Covid-19-positive individuals.
The study showed that researchers appeared to identify a portion of the monkeypox genome, which enabled PCR tests to identify the virus.
The paper is titled “Efficient Assembly of a Large Fragment of Monkeypox Virus Genome as a qPCR Template Using Dual-Selection Based Transformation-Associated Recombination.”
Within its pages, monkeypox viruses, referred to as “MPXVs,” are described as having strains that are “more pathogenic and [have] been reported to infect humans in various parts of the world.”
“Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is the gold standard for the detection of orthopoxvirus (including MPXV). For pan-orthopoxviruses detection, the E9L (DNA polymerase) gene has been shown to be an excellent target for qPCR assays. For MPXV detection, Li et al. reported that the C3L (complement-binding protein) gene could be used as the qPCR target for the MPXV Congo Basin strain,” explained the paper, before noting that China lacked sufficient genetic information on the virus for PCR detection.
“Since MPXV infection has never been associated with an outbreak in China, the viral genomic material required for qPCR detection is unavailable,” the study adds. “In this report, we employed dual-selective TAR to assemble a 55-kb MPXV genomic fragment that encompasses E9L and C3L, two valuable qPCR targets for detecting MPXV or other orthopoxviruses.”
“The primary purpose of assembling a fragment of the MPXV genome is to provide a nucleotide template for MPXV detection,” the study noted.
“As an efficient tool for assembling large DNA fragments up to 592 kb in length, TAR assembly has become essential for preparing infectious clones of large DNA/RNA viruses,” they explain.
The paper acknowledged that TAR “applied in virological research could also raise potential security concerns, especially when the assembled product contains a full set of genetic material that can be recovered into a contagious pathogen.”
“In this study, although a full-length viral genome would be the ideal reference template for detecting MPXV by qPCR, we only sought to assemble a 55-kb viral fragment, less than one-third of the MPXV genome. This assembly product is fail-safe by virtually eliminating any risk of recovering into an infectious virus while providing multiple qPCR targets for detecting MPXV or other Orthopoxviruses,” the researchers wrote.
Notably, the Wuhan Institute of Virology performed similar research into strains of bat coronaviruses that could infect humans. This took place prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Similarly, the unearthed study reveals that the Wuhan Institute had likewise been working with monkeypox not long before the outbreak that has health authorities and governments alarmed at the possibility of another pandemic.
The Biden White House last week ordered 13 million doses of the monkeypox vaccine after a Massachusetts man contracted the disease.
The U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a daughter-agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), spent $119 million on the acquisition of the vaccine for the monkeypox virus from the Denmark-based biotechnology company Bavarian Nordic A/S. The federal government has an additional $180 million in options if it chooses to exercise them.
It recently came to light that James LeDuc, an Anthony Fauci-funded lab director, gave a heads-up to Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers ahead of a potential U.S. investigation into the lab for its involvement in the Covid-19 outbreak.
As seen in new emails obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Judicial Watch, there was a close relationship between the Wuhan lab and LeDuc, who heads the Galveston National Laboratory — which describes itself as “constructed under grants awarded by [Fauci’s] National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).”
