Scientists announce new coronavirus variant in India

The global coronavirus illness, the COVID-19 pandemic, has hit the world, affecting 185 countries and territories, affecting 2.4 million people. Now, a team of scientists aims to shed light on a variant of New Indian Coronavirus StrainIt shows how change responds to its transmission and how it causes disease. Research published on preprint server bioRxiv.

The new coronavirus, officially called Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), first appeared in December 2019 in the seafood market in Wuhan, Hubei, China. Since February, the virus has caused havoc in Iran, South Korea Italy, Spain. From there it spread throughout Europe and to the United States. Currently, the United States is the epicenter of the virus, with more than 759,000 reported cases and more than 40,000 deaths. Spain, Germany, France and the United Kingdom all report increased cases due to many countries being blocked to prevent the spread of the virus.

Novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 transmission electron micrograph of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles isolated from a patient. Color-enhanced image captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, MD. Credit: NIAID

Variant of a new coronavirus

Knowing the virus variants helps scientists determine the behavior of the virus and how it affects the population. In this way, governments can impose effective health measures to prevent the spread of the virus, including social distance measures.

So far, there are no approved vaccines and drugs for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and their development is a major challenge. SARS-CoV-2 has RNA as its genetic material and is frequently mutated. Understanding the nature of mutations can help in the development of potential medicines. It may also point to understanding the next cycle of viral genome mutations. Therefore, it is essential to understand the nature of the mutations in different strains of the novel virus.

the study

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology of Bioscience and Bioengineering in India have announced their findings from whole-genome sequence analysis of viral genome sequences submitted from India. The data consists of 440 genomic population genomic sequences from SRA, GISAID, and GenBank projects worldwide. The report identified 28 different strains.

The team studied sequence alignments of genomic sequences and discovered a new mutation in the NSP3 gene of the SARS-CoV-2 Indian strain. There are also regular and frequent changes from all over the world. Although the changes date back to March, these changes were absent in the sample collected in January in Wuhan, suggesting that the virus strain is mutated.

In India, there are over 17,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 559 deaths. However, due to limited testing, the country is suspected of having more cases than reported. With an increasing number of cases, the virus may have changed to increase infection and pathogenicity, indicating the severity of the virus infection.

According to team observations, two early samples from patients with a history of travel to China were sampled at 3-day intervals. A second sample from the patient has a genetic alteration, suggesting that the patient may be infected with both S and L virus strains.

The L type is considered more aggressive, while the S type is widespread in China. The L-type epidemic has declined since early January, and the more common S-type is seen more frequently today due to quarantine measures that may have reduced the ability of the aggressive types to spread.

Genome sequence analysis

Studying viral strains that are considered genomic sequences can guide scientists in developing vaccines and treatments for SARS-CoV-2 infections. In the Indian population, a new integration of one or more mutations may be associated with its transmission. The observed changes can be added to the domestic viral changes group.

This information is important to the government as India is the second most populous country in the world and a series of steps to control the spread of the virus in the most populous countries. Scientists around the world are worried that the rapid spread of the virus in the country could overwhelm the healthcare system.

“There is an urgent need to share more public data from the Indian community to keep track of new subtypes of viruses, the impact of changes they are incorporating, and where treatment hotspots are. Despite the blockade of the case, the case analyzes virus strains more importantly, “the team concluded.