Information re New SARS-CoV-2 variant found in the UK

[Jm954]

In early December 2020 a group of scientists tracking the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the UK noted that the virus was spreading fast and leading to rapidly rising numbers of cases in Kent although there had been no big workplace outbreaks or changes in people's behaviour.

Several researchers had been asked to look at viral genomes from the region and the genetic family tree they presented showed something unusual was going on. Microbial genomicist Nick Loman of the UK's University of Birmingham reported that not only were half the cases in Kent caused by a specific variant of SARS-CoV-2 but the virus seemed to have become more adept at transmitting between people.

The U.K. lineage of SARS-CoV-2 had apparently acquired 17 mutations that lead to amino acid changes in its proteins all at once, a feat never seen before in the coronavirus. Crucially, eight of them are in the gene that encodes spike, a protein on the viral surface that the pathogen uses to enter human cells.

Three already stand out as worrisome. A mutation named N501Y has previously been shown to increase how tightly the spike binds to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor, its main entry point into human cells. Scientists in South Africa were the first to spot N501Y's importance: They noted it several weeks ago in a lineage that is surging in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. “We found that this lineage seems to be spreading much faster,” says Tulio de Oliveira, a virologist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal whose work alerted U.K. scientists to the mutation. That's concerning, says evolutionary biologist Jesse Bloom of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: “Anytime you see the same mutation being independently selected multiple times, it increases the weight of evidence that that mutation is probably beneficial in some way for the virus.”

The new strain's second notable mutation, a deletion named 69-70del, leads to the loss of two amino acids in the spike protein. It, too, had appeared before: It was found, together with another mutation named D796H, in the virus of a COVID-19 patient in Cambridge, U.K., who was given plasma from recovered patients as a treatment, but eventually died. In lab studies, the patient's strain was less susceptible to convalescent plasma from several donors than wild-type virus, says Ravindra Gupta, a virologist at the University of Cambridge who published the findings in a preprint in early December. Gupta also engineered a lentivirus to express mutated versions of SARS-CoV-2's spike and found that the deletion alone made the virus twice as infectious for human cells.

The United Kingdom has one of the most elaborate monitoring systems in the world, Dr Van Kerkhove says. “My worry is: how much of this is happening globally, where we don't have sequencing capacity?”

More information here: science.sciencemag.org/cont...

What does this mean for us?

The current advice of hand washing, sanitising, face covering and keeping your distance applies even more with this strain. The the most important thing is to avoid infection using the proven measures and take the vaccine when it's offered but don't let down your guard because you may not make antibodies. If you feel you would like to take part in a clinical trial then take a look at the PROVENT trial. Details are here: healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

Jackie

[bennevisplace]

Thanks Jackie. The rapid ascendancy of these strains is a measure of how much more transmissble they are. That, and the prospect that even more transmissible variants are out there, waiting their turn, really turns up the heat on vaccine distribution.

The bit I like in the ScienceMag article is:

"...BioNTech CEO Uğur Şahin pointed out that the U.K. variant differed in only nine of more than 1270 amino acids of the spike protein encoded by the messenger RNA in the very effective COVID-19 vaccine his company developed with Pfizer. “Scientifically it is highly likely that the immune response by this vaccine also can deal with the new virus,” he said. Experiments are underway that should soon confirm that, Şahin added".

Meanwhile folks, review and redouble your safety drill!