COVID-19: the new variant of SARS-CoV-2, an amalgam of 30 mutations that cause concern

The detection of a new variant of the COVID-19 coronavirus in South Africa, identified as B.1.1.529, worries the scientific community because it presents an amalgam of more than 30 mutations that, although some had already been observed in other variants, such as the beta, this is the first time they have seen each other.

This is what has caused it to be under surveillance and to be granted the potential for greater transmissibility and a possible ability to escape the coronavirus, explains researcher Iñaki Comas, from the Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia (Spain), who nevertheless points out that it is still too early to know its true impact.

“Without scaremongering, but we must watch and see what its trajectory is and take the necessary measures, if necessary.”.

According to Comas, “It is a variant that has accumulated a very high number, greater than other times, of mutations in the spicule protein -the one that SARS-CoV-2 uses to enter the human cell- and carries a combination of mutations that we had not previously seen. seen before”.

For example, mutations have been identified in the alpha variant that are believed to be related to increased virus transmissibility and in the beta variant to a reduction in the ability of antibodies to fight it. Now, Comas says, the mutations are seen together.

“What sets the alarm bells off is not so much that at the moment we do not know what it does but the potential it could have, that is why they are called variants under investigation.“Says the scientist, who recalls that on other occasions variants with worrisome mutations have been identified that have later disappeared or been displaced.

Comas insists that what is known so far is that there is a very worrying combination of mutations, but not what effect they have together, and reports that laboratories in South Africa and other parts of the world are studying “to the race”If the variant reduces the effectiveness of the neutralization of the virus by antibodies and the effectiveness of vaccines, in addition to its epidemiological growth.

It seems, he says, that in South Africa it is being fast, which would imply greater transmissibility. However, according to experience with other variants, “We need to see them in other contexts, in other countries, to know if it really is a higher transmissibility intrinsic to the variant -which would worry more- or if there is some epidemiological factor that increases it”.

As for the vaccines, he details that some of the mutations detected in other variants reduced their effectiveness a little, but even so they were still very good. Now, in B.1.1.529, with several known mutations combined, it must be studied, says the one who was director, during the pandemic, of the SeqCovid-Spain consortium, which sequenced thousands of samples.

It is important that the South African authorities have raised the alarm so early, which helps surveillance throughout the world, underlines the researcher, who declares that the country that detects a new variant should not be stigmatized, which, moreover, does not it necessarily has to host its origin.

Yesterday the South African health authorities confirmed the detection of this new variant, which presents “a very unusual constellation of mutations“, But his”meaning is still uncertain”Explained Professor Tulio de Oliveira, from the KwaZulu-Natal Research and Sequencing Innovation Platform (KRISP, a scientific institution in eastern South Africa).

“The variant surprised us, it has a big evolutionary leap, many more variants than we expected, especially after a third wave of very severe delta (variant)“, Said Oliveira.

“We could potentially see this variant expand very quickly”Lamented this specialist, based on data collected in the South African province of Gauteng (where Johannesburg and Pretoria are located), where in recent days the number of COVID-19 cases increased significantly.