Can the coronavirus combine with other viruses?

By infecting an organism in order to reproduce therein, viruses have the ability to mutate or recombine between closely related viruses. Thus, when SARS-CoV-2 spreads into human cells and / or combines with other viruses, its genetic material may be susceptible to mutating. This allows viruses to infect new hosts.

As explained by Vincent Enouf, deputy head of the National Reference Center for Respiratory Viruses at the Institut Pasteur: “CIt is these transformations that generate a new ‘copy’ of the virus. […] The survival [des virus] depends on these mutations, which will allow them to adapt to their environment, to the different hosts they infect “.

Moreover, the mode of survival of coronaviruses is recombination, as stated by Étienne Simon-Loriere, specialist in RNA viruses at the Institut Pasteur: ” It is even one of their main modes of evolution “. These changes are not without consequences. Indeed, they can modify the virulence of the virus as well as its capacity for infection.

For there to be a recombination of the coronavirus with another coronavirus, a condition is necessary. Étienne Simon-Loriere explains it: “ The same person must be infected with both coronaviruses simultaneously, and the latter must be present in the same cell. […] It’s very rare, but not impossible “.

However, several cases of co-infection with other viruses close to SARS-CoV-2 have been observed. This is the case with the influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus (TSV) or other common cold viruses. However, while coronaviruses tend to mutate, they are more stable compared to other RNA viruses. And for good reason, they contain enzymes capable of ensuring that the copy of the RNA does not contain errors.

In all cases, it was observed that the mutations of the virus which had become endemic tended to make it less virulent as time passed.