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It may turn out to be another hurdle in responding to covid-19, but for now investigations are ongoing and there are even more questions than answers. British authorities have recently announced the identification of a new variant of Sars-Cov-2, associated with the rapid growth of cases in the London and Kent area. The Government increased the level of risk in that area of the country and tightened the measures, with the English Minister of Health speaking publicly on the issue and raising the warning and fears of a super-sars-cov-2, although at this time not there is any laboratory indication as to whether the variant affects the effectiveness of vaccines or whether it will fully explain the steeper increase in covid-19 cases in the south of the country. In Europe, no cases of people infected with this variant have yet been reported in other countries and the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention has yet to provide an initial assessment, as it did when a new variant was identified in mink. . But the antennae were raised once more after the start in Denmark, where millions of minks were slaughtered to contain the spread of the variant, associated with only occasional cases of infection among farm workers of these animals. Now, the case is a bit different, with some similarities and a question arises: could these mutations be an advantage for viruses?
Observing, because Portugal has already experienced a “similar situation” The team of the National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge that monitors the genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 is following the situation and has already made a first informative presentation to the Ministry of Health. João Paulo Gomes, head of the Center for Bioinformatics and the Research Unit of the Department of Infectious Diseases of (INSA), explains to io that he performs this variant of greatest interest among the thousands that have already been identified since the epidemic began and the next steps.
Rather, it is important to realize this: SARS-CoV-2 has not shown the same mutation rate as the flu virus, which changes at a faster rate and that is why new vaccines are produced every year for viruses with greater circulation. – but they are always popping up and more than 10,000 different variants have been identified. “SARS-CoV-2 has 30,000 positions in its genetic code where these mutations can occur. There is so much to choose from. And the mutations have already appeared in almost all positions ”, describes the researcher. “Then there are combinations of mutations. There are some who have three or four, others seven or eight, others ten or 15. This means that we can speak of genetic variants. This new genetic variant that is now circulating in the south of England is not very different from the others, it has mutations that have already been seen in other viruses. What happens is that it presents some mutations with some relevance “, he emphasizes.
There are 17 mutations in total in this variant of SARS-CoV-2 named by the British VIU-202012/01. One of them affects the protein spike, the main piece of the virus that infects us, involved in the process of entry of the virus into cells. And it appears in particular in a small region of the genetic code of the virus that influences how this protein of the virus binds to the receptors of the host cell (position 501). “It is in a place where mutations have already been reported, but this is different. Mutations in the same region can have different effects at the protein level. Our genetic code has four letters. Depending on how the letters are combined in the same place, the protein can have different amino acids ”, describes João Paulo Gomes. Epidemiological information is what ends up making detection relevant: knowing that this difference exists, the virus was identified in a context of rapid increase in cases, at a time of strict measures in England. “There are so many viruses circulating, with so many potentially interesting mutations that, to understand what is most important, we have some indicators, namely, to see those that spread very quickly,” the researcher emphasizes. Also, another factor: it may have been a coincidence that there were overdiffusion events, but although the variant has not been identified in Europe, it has already been identified in the US and South Africa. it throws the idea of one or two superdiffusers or a focus on certain population centers a bit to the ground. So from an epidemiological point of view, this is important. “
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