The first study to look at the structure of the new coronavirus from two waves of infection in a major city found that a more contagious strain dominates recent samples, researchers at Houston Methodist Hospital said Wednesday.
They examined more than 5,000 virus genomes recovered in the earliest phase of the pandemic in Houston, an ethnically diverse city of 7 million people, and from a more recent wave of ongoing infections.
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The study, which has not yet been reviewed by outside experts, found that almost all strains in the second wave had a mutation, known as D614G, which has been shown to increase the number of “spikes” in the corona virus. .
The spikes are what allow the virus to bind to cells and infect, increasing the ability of the mutated virus to infect cells.
The Houston researchers said that patients infected with the variant strain had significantly higher amounts of the virus at initial diagnosis.
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But they found little evidence that mutations in the virus made it more lethal, noting that the severity of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, was more strongly related to the underlying medical conditions and genetics of the patients.
They also said that some regions of the spike protein, the main target of coronavirus vaccines now in development, showed various mutations, possibly indicating that the virus is changing to evade the body’s immune response.
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Previous studies have shown that the coronavirus is mutating and evolving as it adapts to its human hosts.
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