As researchers become aware of strains of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, public health officials ask one question: does the vaccine provide protection against them?
Currently, there are two main types of mutations that scientists are paying attention to. Some make the virus more infectious and others appear to be able to evade the antibodies produced by the vaccine.
These new strains are to some extent expected — the virus will mutate always.. Their only evolutionary goal is to be a glorious gene copy and paste machine. Destroyed cells and illness are just secondary damage. It’s understandable that viruses can make genetic code copy mistakes along the way, and instead those bugs can be a boon.
“What’s happening now is that the virus is adapting to a new host,” says David Tofam, a microbiologist and immunologist at the University of Rochester in New York. SARS-CoV-2 did not start as a virus that infects humans Started as an animal virus.. Now that we’ve been practicing copying ourselves among people for over a year, it’s no wonder we’ve become better at replicating and surviving.
(More) infectious pathogens
The first type of mutation that scientists noticed seems to make the virus more infectious, First appearance in the UK.. This variant is called B.1.1.7. Currently, cases of Covid-19 caused by the B.1.1.7 strain of virus are occurring in several countries, including the United States. Dominant stock in a few months..
The B.1.1.7 variant has a slight change in the peplomer used by the virus. Like a crowbar to pry that way into our cells.. Part of the amino acid building block of the previous strain was replaced with another strain. These replacements, which are likely to happen by accident, act like extra hooks.
The overall effect of these amino acid exchanges makes the virus a little better at invading our cells, says Topham. As the virus passes through our body and randomly collides with cells, the extra hooks will grab a little more tightly and the virus is more likely to get inside. This extra stickiness means that low viral load of the B.1.1.7 variant can cause infection and even more people can get sick.Preliminary data show that these strains are about 50% more infectious than previous strains..
Avoiding antibodies
Scientists from other stocks are watching what was born in Brazil. The strain is called P.1., And it also exchanged some amino acids with others. The P.1 strain was found in people who obtained a second case of Covid-19, so scientists have found that these mutations cause the virus from at least some of the protective antibodies produced by past infections or vaccines. I believe in hiding.It’s not clear How exactly does this still happen..
Fortunately, the cells that make antibodies, called B cells, respond wonderfully to changes. It doesn’t matter if they learned to make antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 from previous infections with another strain or from vaccines. “As long as the antibodies they express react slightly with the peplomer, they adapt very quickly to the viral protein,” says Topham. He hopes that previous immunity to SARS-CoV-2 will have some usefulness against new viral strains, even if it takes some time to adapt.
These mutations may sound scary, but there’s at least some good news. “As far as we know, there is no change in the severity of the disease for any of these mutations,” says Topham. Therefore, better attachment of these strains to our cells or hiding from some antibodies will probably not exacerbate the resulting disease.
And there are still ways to reduce your chances of getting sick in the first place. It’s been advertised by major health organizations for months. Wearing a mask, away and washing your hands.
