BREAKING NEWS : New Studies Emerging That Confirms The Coronavirus Is Mutating And Becoming More Virulent
Source : Thailand Medical News Feb 05, 2020 4 years, 8 months, 3 weeks, 4 days, 3 hours, 45 minutes ago
Initial comments by many so called experts including some from WHO and The US CDC saying that the
coronavirus is not
mutating has now been gradually proved to be wrong.
On the 27
th Of January, Dr Nancy Messonnier, head of respiratory diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) commented that
coronavirus was not
mutating. (Source: Medical Express)
Dr Kristian Andersen, an infectious-disease researcher at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California on the 31
st of January also made a comment that the
coronavirus is not capable of mutating to become more potent. (Source: The Nature)
Many other so called experts also made similar comments during the last two weeks.
However, many new research studies by Chinese researchers and also new developments are confirming a different scenario.
Virology specialists from the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai in two different studies have confirmed that the
coronavirus is
mutating and becoming more virulent.
The first has already been published in the journal of National Science Review on the 29
th of January (
refer to url link below) while a second is to be published this week, also in the same journal.
The virology researchers studying a cluster of
coronavirus infections within a family in the southern province of Guangdong said the genes of the virus went through some significant changes as it spread within the family.
Viruses mutate all the time, but most changes are
synonymous or “silent”, having little effect on the way the virus behaves. Others, known as
nonsynonymous substitutions, can alter biological traits, allowing them to adapt to different environments.
Two
nonsynonymous changes took place in the viral strains isolated from the family, according to the study by Professor Cui Jie and colleagues at the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai.
This case indicated “viral evolution may have occurred during person-to-person transmission”, they wrote in the paper published in the journal National Science Review on 29 January. (
the url link for that study is found below)
In the second study involving another group of patients from Hubei, the team also found significant
nonsynonymous substitutions taking place and confirmed that the virus is indeed
mutating becoming more potent and virulent.
In different study by Dr Fang Li from the University of Minnesota that was published in the Journal of Virology, on the 29
th Of January 2020 (
url link found below), lead researcher Dr Fang Li, warned after studying the genome of the virus that their research data alarmingl
y predicts that a single mutation (at a specific spot in the
genome) could significantly enhance the Wuhan
coronavirus's ability to bind with human angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) receptors to become extremely potent and deadly.
She further added, “For this reason, Wuhan
coronavirus evolution in patients should be closely monitored for the emergence of novel
mutations at the 501 position in its
genome, and to a lesser extent, the 494 position, in order to predict the possibility of a more serious outbreak than has been seen so far.”
According to Dr Li, these type of
gene “
evolution” or
mutation is easy to occur considering the nature of the virus genomic structure and characteristics.
Other experts are also saying that the
coronavirus is not only “fast learning and adapting” it is beginning to exhibit signs that it is improving its mode and potency of transmissions and also its potency in the human body even to the stage of preventing antibody reactions.
A Chinese researcher at Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who wished to remain anonymous due to security reasons said “ efforts to develop a vaccine and also find treatments using antivirals will be hampered by the
coronavirus potency and
mutations. Already we are witnessing resistant to some of the initial antivirals we had used and that too in a very short time. We are dealing with something here that is going to be far more challenging that what most people can imagine.
LATEST : Read also:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/largest-meta-analysis-of-sequenced-genomes-of-the-coronavirus-reveals-a-new-subtype-has-emerged
For accurate updates about the
China coronavirus epidemic or the
Thailand Coronavirus scenario, keep on checking at:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/coronavirus
References:
Evolutionary Perspectives on Novel Coronaviruses Identified in Pneumonia Cases in China , Xiaoman Wei, Xiang Li, Jie Cui
National Science Review, nwaa009,
https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaa009
Published: 29 January 2020
Yushun Wan et al, Receptor recognition by novel
coronavirus from Wuhan: An analysis based on decade-long structural studies of SARS,
Journal of Virology (2020).
DOI: 10.1128/JVI.00127-20
