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A team of US scientists USA Directed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, based in the USA. It has identified a new highly potent coronavirus strain that has spread globally and is more contagious than the virus in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also read – #CoronaWarriors: Doctor in Bangalore receives a strong welcome when he returns home after COVID-19 duty
The Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos or LANL) is a national laboratory of the United States Department of Energy initially organized during World War II for the design of nuclear weapons. Read also: BCCI deletes the quotas of cricket players with physical disabilities amid the coronavirus outbreak
According to scientists, who published their 33-page report on Thursday on the BioRxiv prepress portal, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, the new strain appeared in February in Europe, migrated to the east coast of the United States, and has been the dominant strain worldwide. the world since mid-March, according to a report published in the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. Also read: Marnus Labuschagne preparing for ‘Piles of cricket’ once action resumes after COVID-19 outbreak
“In addition to spreading faster, it can make people vulnerable to a second infection after a first attack with the disease,” the authors cautioned.
The mutation affects the now infamous spikes on the outside of the coronavirus, which allow it to enter human respiratory cells.
The authors said they felt an “urgent need for an early warning” so that vaccine manufacturers around the world are prepared to take on the deadliest mutated strain.
The new strain’s dominance over its predecessors shows that it is more infectious, although exactly why is not yet known.
The report was based on a computational analysis of more than 6,000 coronavirus sequences from around the world.
The Los Alamos team, along with scientists from Duke University and the University of Sheffield in England, identified 14 mutations.
“The story is troubling as we see a mutated form of the virus emerging very rapidly, and during the month of March it became the dominant pandemic form,” study leader Bette Korber of Los Alamos wrote on her Facebook page.
“When viruses with this mutation enter a population, they quickly begin to take over the local epidemic, making them more transmissible,” added Korber, a computational biologist.
“We have developed a line of analysis to facilitate real-time monitoring of the mutation in SARS-CoV-2, initially targeting the Spike (S) protein because it mediates infection of human cells and is the goal of most vaccine strategies and antibody-based therapies, “the authors wrote.
“The ‘Spike D614G’ mutation is a matter of urgent concern; it began to spread in Europe in early February, and when it was introduced to new regions it quickly became the dominant form,” they added.
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