“New Corona” … a strain, a mutation or a mutation? What is the difference?

Last week, the British Prime Minister announced the discovery of a “new type” of Covid-19 virus, which may be responsible for faster transmission of the disease.

New virus strains are often referred to as “mutated copies”, so what is the difference between mutation, mutation and new strain, and what is the new development that infected the emerging corona virus?

What is the mutated Corona strain?
Scientists called the mutant strain of Corona the name VUI 01/202012, and it is characterized by its rapid spread between humans as a result of a series of mutations that have been identified in the genetic coding, according to the British newspaper “The Independent” .

Scientists and researchers do not believe that the mutated version of Corona causes more severe symptoms of Covid-19, or increases the death rate among those infected with it, and the data so far indicates that the vaccines used against Corona, which appeared by first time in Wuhan in December 2019, they are effective with The New Brood.

According to experts from “Imperial College London”, the mutated strain may make Covid-19 70 percent more susceptible to human-to-human transmission.

Mutation or a new strain?
The term new strain is appropriate when talking about the “SARS-Cove-2” virus, which causes Covid-19 disease, because it is a strain of the large family of coronaviruses, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome “SARS” and the syndrome respiratory disease in the Middle East “MERS”.

Explaining the difference between the new strain and the mutated one, Professor Tom Connor from Cardiff University College of Biological Sciences said that there is a strain of the Corona virus, which is “SARS-Cove-2”, and there is different types of that strain that are a modification.

Is it a mutation?
“Mutation” represents the process by which a strain can hatch new variants, and the idea of ​​a mutated virus may sound scary, but scientists have made it clear that it is normal and expected.

Some of these mutations are “silent” and have no function, but others make some important changes to the structure of the virus.

One of these mutations, known as N501Y, occurs in the protein called “spike,” which is the part of the virus responsible for attaching itself to human cells.

The mutation increased the ability of the virus’s receptors to bind to specific proteins that coat our cells, making them more infectious.

Evidence shows that a second notable mutation, called 69-70del, causes a loss of two amino acids in the spike protein and prevents immune responses in some immunosuppressed patients.

Although a single change in the virus is unlikely to make the Corona vaccine less effective, it may be necessary to change the vaccine if more mutations develop.