COVID-19 News: Is The JN.1 Variant That Is Evolving Rapidly Becoming Possibly More Pathogenic? JN.1 Strains In Singapore Developing NS8 S103L Mutation!
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Dec 12, 2023 1 year, 1 week, 4 days, 22 hours, 13 minutes ago
COVID-19 News: The rapidly evolving BA.2.86 variant and its first offspring, JN.1 is evolving and mutating at an unprecedented rate never seen before history of virology! Since its identification in mid-August 2023, the BA.2.86 and its main offspring JN.1 has spawned more than 370 different sub-lineages that have been identified. (Actual numbers could be far much more as due to low genomic surveillance and coupled with the fact that many uploaded sequences have yet to be studied in detail.)
https://cov-spectrum.org/collections/190
https://cov-spectrum.org/collections/189
https://cov-spectrum.org/collections/188
https://cov-spectrum.org/collections/169
Many of these spawns of BA.2.86 and JN.1 have varying viral fitness and unique mutations found on them which we know little about in terms of their influence on pathogenicity.
While various
COVID-19 News reports and announcements by various health officials around the world show that JN.1 is gaining predominance in circulation, scientists and researchers are concerned that despite the fact that BA.2.86 and JN.1 are already highly immune evasive variants, they could be further evolving to completely disarm both the innate immune systems and even the adaptive immune system completely, possibly leading to increased disease severity and even make the hosts susceptible to various other opportunistic pathogenic infections, in a situation that could be even worse than AIDs!
Researchers have for instance identified new sub-lineages of JN.1 emerging from Singapore just recently with the mutation NS8 S103L.
https://twitter.com/HNimanFC/status/1734451263838785692
The mutations in the NS8 proteins not only governs the various disarming mechanisms of the innate immunity system but also can affect the MHC-1 proteins which T cells use for antigen or viral recognition.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9926417/
In the case of the mutation NS8 S103L found in the Singapore strains, the preferential inclusion of leucine in NS8 typically indicates a tendency to undermine the presentation of viral antigens by MHC class 1, impairing the antiviral signaling process.
This will cause the already depleted levels of cytotoxic T cells to not be able to recognize or help infected cells….hence helping in the rapid spread of the virus to various parts of the body and possibly leading to increased disease severity.
Already we also have preliminary data showing that the JN.1 variant is better adapt at using both TMPRSS2 and ACE2 receptors and also many othe
r receptors.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-news-ba-2-86-spawns-such-as-jn-1,-jn-1-1-and-recombinant-like-xdd-increasing-in-circulation-rapidly-concerns-raised-about-monovalent-jabs
We can expect the JN.1 and its spawns to cause more lower respiratory damage, damage to the gut especially the intestines and also damage to the liver, kidneys, the CNS system and also the eyes (not conjunctivitis or red eyes but worse issues!)
Also, expect Long COVID conditions to be far worse for all individuals exposed to the JN.1 variant with faster health deterioration and more possible fatal outcomes!
Thailand Medical News will be providing more updates as 11 studies are currently underway by various research teams across the world on the JN.1 variant and we are also receiving more updates on the mutating BA.2.86 and JN.1 strains.
UPDATE: In the last few hours JN.1 strains with NS8 S103L Mutation have also been found in California-USA, possibly thanks to holiday travel and lack of any travel restrictions and proper healthcare screenings!
https://twitter.com/HNimanFC/status/1734472308918550626
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COVID-19 News, keep on logging to
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