Ohio researchers announced Wednesday that they have identified two coronavirus variants that may have originated in the United States.
One of the new strains has been identified in a single patient in the state, ‘so researchers do not yet know the prevalence of the strain in the population’, according to the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center where researchers first identified the variant .
This new variant “has a mutation that is identical to the British strain, but probably originated in a virus strain that already exists in the United States,” officials said.
In addition, researchers also found what is described as a ‘developing strain with three new mutations’ that ‘became the dominant virus in Columbus for a period of three weeks at the end of December 2020 and January.’
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“This new Columbus strain has the same genetic backbone as previous cases we studied, but these three mutations represent an important evolution,” said Dr. Dan Jones, vice president of the division for molecular pathology and lead study author, said statement. “We know that this shift does not come from the British or South African branches of the virus.”
According to them, the Columbus variant was called COH.20G / 501Y.
The findings were published as a pre-printed server BioRxiv and have not yet been reviewed by the peer.
Researchers at the medical center identified the new strains by sequencing the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which they have been doing since the beginning of the pandemic, in an effort to track the “evolution of the virus” . .
“Like the British strain, mutations found in both viruses affect the nails that study the surface of SARS-Cov-2. The spikes enable the virus to attach to and enter human cells. Like the British strain, “the mutations in the Columbus tribe are likely to make the virus more contagious, making it easier for the virus to pass from person to person,” according to university researchers.
Experts have expressed concern that the mutations may affect the efficacy of existing COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutic agents. But, “we have no data to believe that these mutations will have an impact on the efficacy of vaccines currently in use,” said Peter Mohler, co-author of the study and chief scientist at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and vice-teacher, said. dean for research at the College of Medicine, in a statement.
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“It’s important that we do not overreact to this new variant before obtaining additional data,” Mohler continued. “We need to understand the impact of mutations on the transmission of the virus, the prevalence of stress in the population and whether it has a more significant impact on human health.”
Monitoring the evolution of the virus is critical to understanding how the mutations affect how doctors diagnose and treat the virus.
“Viruses naturally mutate and develop over time, but the changes seen over the past two months were more prominent than in the first months of the pandemic,” Jones added.