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Waiting to know, after specific analyzes, if the so-called English variant is more dangerous and more contagious, although experts agree that it is difficult for it to resist developed vaccines, there is a very important aspect to take into account and that raises all attention of all the virologist Francesco Broccolo, from the University of Milan Bicocca and director of the Cerba laboratory in Milan, which is the variant of the virus identified in Great Britain it is not detectable by all currently available tests. The variant is distinguished only by a second level examination, based on the viral genome sequencing.
“With the usual molecular diagnostic tests it is revealed l’Rna viral load and possibly viral load, but the new variant is identified only if a more accurate study of the genetic sequence of the virus, that is, considering its complete genome or partial sequences ”, such as those related to the region that controls the protein spike, the primary molecular weapon that the SarsCoV2 virus uses to enter cells. Thus, continues the expert, “a question mark on diagnostic tests“One wonders, for example, if there is a risk of losing positive cases.
“Rapid antigen tests, for example, could give even more false negatives – Broccoli Notes – while looking Spike protein antigen and if it is changed they cannot see anything“As for molecular tests, he continues,” in particular, all those tests that amplify the sequence of the S gene will have to be verified and manufacturers will have to review specific molecular probes and notify the certification body“Therefore, it was preferred to focus on more stable genetic regions of the virus, but this means not being able to recognize the new variant, which mutates in the Spike protein.” As a result, a diagnostic test alarm is triggered, “notes the expert. “Only a more in-depth study based on the sequencing of the genetic inheritance of the virus, which is not a routine test, has allowed us to detect the English variant in the patient who arrived in Italy,” says Broccolo. In other words , “we detect the new variant only if we search for it with sequencing, an exam that only some laboratories can perform“.
In Italy there is obviously a network of laboratories capable of sequencing, but as the professor explains Massimo Galli, Head of Infectious Diseases at the Sacco Hospital in Milan in Corriere della Sera, “but he needs support. In the United Kingdom The Covid-19 Genomics Consortium, which includes the main universities in the country, was financed with 20 million pounds and was able to achieve more than 50 thousand coronavirus genomic sequences, allowing among other things to identify this variant, while in Italy the laboratories have not received significant support. In Italy, research is little considered even when it would serve, as in this case, to provide immediate responses to control a pandemic ”. On this point the ECDC (the European Center for Infectious Disease Control) – in a document published on their website – among other things indicated the need for laboratories to re-verify and update the nucleotides used in the various Sars-Cov-2 diagnostic methods, such as molecular buffers and rapid antigen tests. According to the ECDC in testing, we cannot just rely on detecting variants in the S gene and recommends having a confirmation by sequencing. For this reason, the ability to characterize the virus genetically and antigenically or to share isolated sequences with reference laboratories must be increased.
The so-called English variant of the coronavirus, identified for more than a month, “It is certainly not the first and it does not deserve all the publicity it is given. My feeling is that it has a modest impact on the vaccine and on a clinical level. The discussion must take place at scientific tables before the media, especially at a stage in which we have to convince people to get vaccinated, “he says. Massimo Andreoni, director of the Tor Vergata infectious diseases unit, speaking on Radio Cusano Campus. According to the doctor, “you always need that minimum of essential precaution with respect news that begins to circulate even before there are scientific publications“In fact, this will be” the tenth or fifteenth variant of the virus we are talking about. Now we describe a variant that is more easily transmitted – continues – This is an RNA virus, so it has a great ability to mutate by nature.. If it spreads a bit more, but is no longer clinically aggressive, it is interesting, but it does not deserve all the publicity it receives. For treatment purposes, it should respond to the few drugs that we have available at this time ”.
The impact on the vaccine should also be “modest”, continues Andreoni, according to whom “it would have been more intelligent if the discussion had been carried out in scientific tables than in the media. In a phase where we have to convince people to get vaccinated, in fact it is not the case to create all these concerns and doubts – he concludes – From the little data that we have available, this modification of the peak protein it would appear to be modest and therefore would not determine the need for a vaccine change. By now it has been understood how the vaccine is made, so even if a new vaccine were needed, we would know how to do it quickly.“.
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