By Dina Beasley
September 23 (Reuters) – The first study analyzing the composition of the novel coronavirus from two waves of infection in a large city found that more infectious strains dominate recent samples, researchers at Houston Methodist Hospital said Wednesday.
They examined more than 1,000 genomes from the virus in the early stages of the Houston epidemic, a million million racially diverse cities, and from the recent wave of current infections.
The study, which has not yet been reviewed by outside experts, found that the second wave had a change in almost all strains, known as D614G, which showed an increase in the number of “spikes” on the crown-shaped virus.
Spikes are those that bind and infect the virus cells, increasing the ability of the mutated virus to infect the cells.
Researchers in Houston said the virus was significantly higher in patients diagnosed with different types of stress at the time of initial diagnosis.
But they found little evidence that mutations in the virus have made it worse, noting that the disease caused by the virus is more strongly linked to the severity of COVID-19, the underlying medical conditions of patients, and heredity.
They said some regions of the spike protein – now in development the primary target of the coronavirus vaccine – showed many mutations, possibly indicating that the virus is changing to avoid the body’s immune response.
Previous studies have shown that coronavirus mutates and evolves because it adapts to its human hosts. (Reporting by Dina Beasley; Editing by Tom Brown)
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