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PETALING JAYA: The D614G mutation of the Covid-19 virus, which is said to be a more infectious strain, has recently resurfaced behind one of the largest clusters in Malaysia.
Tan Sri Health Director General Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah previously confirmed that the D614G mutation was found in the Benteng LD (Lahad Datu) group following the arrest of two undocumented immigrants.
As of yesterday, the Benteng LD cluster has 924 cases.
Dr. Noor Hisham later said that the mutated strain found in the group originated from Indonesia and the Philippines.
The D614G mutation, which is said to make the virus 10 times more infectious, was first detected in the country in the Sivagangga group.
The index patient in the Sivagangga group was a permanent resident who returned to Kedah from Sivagangga in India on July 13.
He had initially tested negative at KL International Airport and was later placed in home quarantine, but violated quarantine rules.
Subsequent investigations by the ministry found that the mutated variant was also prevalent in the Tawar and Sungai groups in Kedah and the Ulu Tiram group in Johor.
Dr. Noor Hisham had said that the source of the infection was “probably from abroad.”
In the mutated strain, the genetic instructions for one of the amino acids, number 614, changed in the new variant from a “D” (aspartic acid) to a “G” (glycine).
This means that the D614 variant has mutated to become the G614 variant.
The change occurred in the part of the genome that encodes the “spike protein,” the spike-shaped protrusions of the virus that allow the virus to enter human cells.
The mutation was first detected in viruses collected in China and Germany in late January, but it quickly emerged and became dominant in places like Europe in March.
Research published in the journal Cell by scientists at the US-based Los Alamos National Laboratory in July claimed that the mutated strain would increase the infectivity of the virus.
Dr. Bette Korber and other scientists in the study said the data showed that the variant with the D614G mutation became the globally dominant form of SARS-CoV-2.
“Our global tracking data shows that the G614 variant has spread faster than D614. We interpret this to mean that the virus is likely to be more infectious.
“Interestingly, we found no evidence of the effects of G614 on disease severity, it was not significantly associated with hospitalization status.
“However, an association between the G614 variant and higher death rates has been reported in a comparison of death rates across countries,” they said.
However, an article published in the journal Nature on September 8 raised questions about the strength of the evidence presented in the study by Dr. Korber and other scientists.
“Many scientists say that there is no strong evidence that D614G has a significant effect on the spread of the virus or that a process of natural selection explains its increase.
“The European dominance of the G variants could simply be due to chance, if, for example, the mutation turned out to be a bit more common in viruses that reached Europe,” argued author Ewen Callaway.
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