Experts agree that it is no longer surprising that new variants are already emerging in the United States.However, they emphasized that unchecked infections of the virus provide a wealth of opportunities for the virus. Mutant..
NBC News Recently, almost a year after this global health crisis, it was reported that the virus spread at record high rates in the United States, with the emergence of new strains of the virus.
Ohio scientists have also identified two distinctive coronavirus variants in Columbus, according to the news site.
Therefore, according to Ben Bimber, a research professor at Oregon Health & Science University, the most ideal way to crack down on new strains is to stop the spread of the virus.
Every time the virus replicated, he explained, “it’s an opportunity to mutate.”
If more individuals are infected, the research professor simply continued that if more people were infected, more viruses were “there are and more likely to mutate.” ..
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Experts said vaccination is the key to preventing the spread of both variants and reducing the likelihood of new strains emerging.
The virus copy itself
When a virus infects a person, it penetrates the cell and replicates itself. In addition, Bimber explained that every time the virus copies itself, an error can occur. In addition, experts continued, if the infection replicates to people, it will slowly increase mutations.
In many cases, these mutations and errors are meaningless, Bhimber said. However, in certain situations, the coronavirus may provide survival benefits, such as “increasing infectivity” or becoming more resistant to vaccines and other treatments.
On the other hand, some mutations can weaken the infection. It’s unclear how the two recently detected strains in Ohio affect the behavior of the virus.
The above research results on new strains have been published in BioRxiv, Online preprint server. This means that such findings have not yet been peer reviewed.
In this particular study, the authors examined the gene sequences of more than 220 coronavirus samples collected in the Columbus region from April last year to earlier this month.
Identified variant
During a media briefing on Wednesday, Dr. Dan Jones, Vice Chairman of the Department of Molecular Pathology Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center However, one of the mutants detected in Ohio is a mutation in the viral peplomer identified as the N501Y mutant. This is the same mutation found in the more contagious strains of the UK and South African variants.
The variants did not come from anyone abroad. Instead, by examining other small changes in the genetic code of the mutant, researchers were able to detect that it occurred independently in the United States.
Harvard TH Chan Faculty of Public HealthWilliam Hanage, an associate professor of epidemiology, said he was not surprised at the discovery of new strains, especially those with the N501Y mutation, because of “the fact that they happened many times.”In addition to appearing in United Kingdom and South Africa, Certain mutations have also been detected in Brazil.
Meanwhile, other mutants had a combination of three mutations that were not observed together in the past, according to researchers.
The N501Y mutation was found in only one sample, but the three-mutant mutant quickly became dominant in the samples scientists tested last month and earlier this month.
Jones said, vaccination It is the key to preventing the spread of both variants and reducing the likelihood of new strains emerging.
He explained that the larger the pool of vulnerable patients, the more likely the mutations will survive and emerge.
Experts say that even an essential mutation from an infected person is “petering out” because “one person needs to be transmitted from one person to another” “if the vaccine does not cause many infections in the population”. “There is likely to be. It does not infect others with the virus.
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