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As we serve champagne to chill, crazy to sing “goodbye, old year”, 2020 reminds us that until the last minute before midnight, a lot can happen: researchers from the Dasa diagnostic laboratory have just announced that they have identified two in São Paulo B.1.1.7 cases of SARS-CoV 2, a variation of the coronavirus that was initially found in the United Kingdom and that British scientists have estimated to be 50% to 74% more contagious.
The mutation, which already represents more than 50% of newly diagnosed covid-19 cases in England, according to the WHO (World Health Organization), has also been detected in other European countries and is beginning to spread throughout the world. . Although it is more infectious, it is not more lethal than the other dominant strains of the virus.
Dasa has already reported the discovery of the arrival of the strain B.1.1.7 in the country to the Adolfo Lutz and Anvisa Institute (National Health Surveillance Agency). When the United Kingdom launched this brand new variant, which accumulates more mutations than expected due to the behavior of the covid-19 virus until then, the Brazilian scientists rolled up their sleeves without wasting time. They soon suspected that the version of the new coronavirus with eight mutations only in the famous protein spike, which it uses as a key to enter our cells, could have landed in Brazil. And sadly, there was no other.
The researchers analyzed 400 saliva samples by RT-PCR, a method that identifies three different targets, and not just the S gene, of the always-cited peak protein. And in two of them they found line B.1.1.7. The virologist José Eduardo Levi, from Dasa, explains why changes in the peak protein are worrisome: “As it is used so that the virus binds to the human cell, they can make it more infectious.” In other words, since the British scientists who first noticed these mutations are suspect, this would make the cause of the pandemic more easily transmitted.
Can it compromise the effectiveness of vaccines? And the tests?
That was my question, which I took to José Eduardo Levi: “Look, in the case of those vaccines that focus on the protein peak, it is possible that they are. And, among us, they are the majority,” he says. “The English are probably already immersed in studies to evaluate this hypothesis of reduced efficacy of some immunizers,” he replied. Attention: this is not confirmed. But, as a matter of logic, it’s not something to be ruled out until studies show otherwise.
Levi reminds me of what happens to the hepatitis B vaccine. The virus that causes liver disease also has a protein that it uses as a key, known casually as “S”, just, in this case, “S” on the surface . And what has been observed is that some cases have escaped immunization and detection due to mutations in the blessed protein S of this virus. Can it also happen with the covid-19 virus? So far it is unknown.
In Brazil, for now, with only two samples, it is difficult to conduct studies to confirm anything. But Levi and his colleagues are particularly concerned about diagnostic tests. “Some antigen tests also focus exclusively on the spike protein of the new coronavirus,” he gives the example. Again, in theory, given the new variant, they can give a false negative result. “There are antigen tests that also target another viral protein, the one called M. And these may be less affected.”
