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A mutation in the SARS-Cov-2 Spike protein, found in British, South African and Brazilian variants, makes the new coronavirus up to eight times more infectious in human cells than it first appeared in China, reveals a scientific study.
The research, published in the eLife journal, led by experts from New York University (UNY), the New York Genome Center and Mount Sinai Hospital, “confirms the findings that the D614G mutation causes SRA-CoV- 2 is more communicable. “
These findings add “a growing consensus” among scientists that this mutation is more infectious, but it is not yet clear whether its rapid spread “has a clinical impact on disease progression,” as several studies suggest that this mutation is mutation “is not associated with more serious illness or hospitalization,” UNY said in a statement.
One of the study authors, Neville Sanjana, from that university, noted that in the months after the investigation began, D614G “reached near-universal prevalence” and is included in all currently relevant variants.
“Confirming that the mutation leads to increased transmissibility may help explain, in part, why the virus has spread so rapidly in the last year,” he added.
This mutation, found in the Spike protein (the one the virus uses to enter cells), probably appeared in early 2020 and is now the most prevalent and dominant form in many countries around the world.
For the study, the scientists introduced a virus with the D614G mutation into human cells in the lung, liver and colon. At the same time, they introduced a version of the same virus without the mutation into the same cell types and compared the results, concluding that the D614G variant increased the transmissibility of the virus “up to eight times compared to the original virus.” in addition to making it more resistant.
The team noted that these findings “may influence” the development of the vaccine against covid-19, that is, include in future booster vaccines “various forms of the protein Spike, of the different circulating variants.”
The licensed vaccines and vaccines in development were created using the original Spike protein sequence, and studies are now underway to evaluate its effectiveness against variants that have emerged in the UK, South Africa and Brazil, all with the D614G mutation. remember the study. .
Recent work suggests that vaccines with the initial form of D614 may protect against the more recent form, although more work is needed to understand how multiple mutations can interact with each other and affect the immune response.
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