A new strain of coronavirus found in the UK is of serious concern to authorities. This mutation is found in areas where COVID-19 cases are growing the fastest.
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One of the factors that in some parts of southern England may be a new strain of coronavirus, which in the past two months has been detected during the course of genomic surveillance in England, reports The Guardian… The strain contains a number of different mutations and has been found in areas where the virus is on the rise, according to British Minister of Health Matt Hancock.
According to the head of the Ministry of Health, the initial analysis showed that the new type of coronavirus is spreading faster than previous variants. Matt Hancock added that while it is predominantly in the south, more than 1,000 infections have been reported in nearly 60 locations, “and the numbers are growing rapidly.”
According to The Guardian, there is no suggestion that this strain is more dangerous than other Sars-CoV-2 coronaviruses. A more complete picture of whether this is due to differences in symptoms, duration or severity of illness will emerge as more data are collected by scientists.
Researchers at the Covid-19 Genomics UK (Cog-UK) consortium have discovered this variant of the coronavirus and will track its movement across the country.
Why can a new strain of coronavirus spread faster? Viruses, The Guardian explains, constantly acquire mutations. Most of them have little or no effect, and some will interfere with the virus, resulting in the disappearance of these mutations. But mutations are also possible, due to which the virus is transmitted faster.
The new variant has several mutations in the coronavirus spike protein, the most disturbing of which appears to be what scientists call a deletion – in this case, the loss of two amino acids from the spike protein – that could facilitate its spread. The same deletion was found in coronaviruses in several countries this year, but at low levels.
A similar deletion was found when samples of the virus were taken from a patient in Cambridge with a weakened immune system. The patient was treated with convalescence plasma – a blood plasma containing antibodies from a recovered patient. The virus acquired a mutation during this treatment and may have become more resistant to antibodies. The patient eventually died of the infection.
“We think there is a mechanism by which the virus starts to escape,” says Ravi Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at the Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Cambridge. – We have to fight this. We do not know what he will do in the long run, but we cannot risk it. It is unlikely that it will make people worse, but it can make it difficult to control. “
As viruses mutate, there is always the chance of a new strain emerging that is resistant to existing vaccines. Most COVID vaccines produce antibodies that neutralize the virus by absorbing its spike proteins. They examine the surface of the virus and help it enter human cells. If the spike protein mutates, as in the new variant, it could potentially evade antibodies generated by vaccines using the older version of the spike protein.
But two points are important. First, vaccines produce a series of antibodies that attack the virus from different angles, making it difficult for the virus to avoid them all at once. Second, serious mutations are likely to affect the ability of the virus to infect human cells. Geneticists are already tracking the virus for mutant forms that achieve what they call “vaccine escape.” Research is currently underway at Porton Down and other laboratories to see if the new strain could pose problems. If the virus does mutate to a resistant form, vaccines can be adjusted to be effective again.
Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Emergency Program, said he was aware of this option: “This kind of evolution and mutation is actually quite common. The question we asked quite recently (…) is this: does this make the virus more serious? Does this make the virus easier to transmit? Does it somehow interfere with the diagnosis? Will this in any way affect the effectiveness of the vaccine? None of these issues have been resolved yet. “
Read also: New Coronavirus Strain Discovered in UK
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