Discovery of coronavirus variants commenced with a crash

(CNN) – The discovery of new variants of important coronavirus in the United Kingdom and South Africa began with the release of a bottle of wine.

In November, Tulio de Oliveira, who runs a genetics laboratory in South Africa, began receiving medical phone calls from doctors in the province of Cabo Oriental, who set up an explosive cremation facility for patients with covid-19. The hospitals have been established with rapid relocation. The aument apartment has been damaged by the night.

“Impact force”, said Oliveira, professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban.

Oliveira immediately tested samples of the virus from the narcissists of the patients to be able to genetically follow them.

In less than one week, a sequence of 16 samples. There are 16 similar mutations, and an unusually high number of mutations.

“I’m tired of being ‘have a lot of extras here’,” Oliveira said.

Oliveira, a prominent virus virus, has discovered a new coronavirus variant.

The 16 masters score in the distance of kilometers between them in the provinces of Cabo Oriental in KwaZulu-Natal. For this reason, there is the fact that the variant is extended with speed.

To summarize the preoccupations, some of the mutations are found in the genes related to the bites found in the superior part of the virus. The tests to detect the virus, as well as the medicines and vaccines against covid-19, are focused on these little ones. The preoccupation is that if the cambian picos, it is possible that the tests, the medicines and the vacancies do not work well.

The steps to screen the coronavirus variant in South Africa

In the next step of his virus search, Oliveira went to the laboratories of the Red of Vigilance Genomics in South Africa and the patient who sent virus samples from his patients with covid-19 from all parties.

One of the laboratories established in Stellenbosch, a city that houses the famous South African countries.

Oliveira says that Susan Engelbrecht, the principal scientist of Stellenbosch’s laboratory, says that she’s surprised if the new variant is related to her area, that it is more than 700 kilometers from Nelson Mandela’s bathhouse, which was detected first instance the propagation of the variant.

“There is a demand for it, that if we find the variant in more than 50% of the samples of Stellenbosch, I would like a bottle of wine”, says Oliveira. “She says that not only will I get a bottle of wine, but she will be sure that she will not be successful,” he said.

Of the 67 samples from Stellenbosch, 58 are from the same variant found in Nelson Mandela’s bathroom.

Oliveira is considering that Stellenbosch wine will be selected … but it will be expensive.

The worldwide alert to identify the covid-19 variant

A few days later, on December 4, Oliveira sent an urgent e-mail to the official of the World Health Organization, who is directing the SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution Working Group.

“I would like to solicit an urgent addition to the agenda, in order to alert you to some of South Africa’s preliminary issues,” Oliveira wrote.

If the permit is granted and Oliveira warns of the other scientists in the llamada, who have proven to be all over the world, about this new variant that was found in South Africa. Signal that includes a mutation in a position of the protein called N501Y, and instead of its peers looking for similar mutations in its countries.

Andrew Rambaut, Professor at the University of Edimburg, shared the area. It and its colleagues search the genomic data base of the United Kingdom and find a variant containing the N501Y mutation, which is being established extensively in parts of the English border. It will be published on the 20th of December.

This day, Rambaut tweeted: “The trail for the N501Y province of @Tuliodna, which is located in South Africa”.

I think the fact that the mutation was first identified and then linked to a growing group rather than the other way around changes the likelihood that the variant is the cause of the group, rather than just a random variant occurring in the region. .

– Andrew Rambaut 🦠🧬🌲🔮🤦‍♂️ (@arambaut) 20 December 2020

Maria Van Kerkhove, leader of the OMS ‘response to the coronavirus, said that De Oliveira’s discovery “definitely encourages (British scientists) to observe different types of varieties”.

“I’m very grateful that we have this (international) collaboration,” he said.

‘We are playing a very difficult game with this virus’

If a virus changes its genetics in the correct way, it is possible that the tests can be detected easily and that the vacancies do not work well.

“We are playing a very difficult game with this virus at the moment”, said Van Kerkhove, giving the explosive crime in the United States and other countries. “What we are concerned about is how much more extends, more opportunities tend to change,” he explained.

These variants can be found in South Africa and the United Kingdom, but it is not clear where to start. Hasta now, because both are propagating more rapidly, but not their most mortal. The car manufacturers and other scientists are studying and the variants represent a challenge for the cars.

Watching the virus — genetically sequencing samples from a large number of people — is “a fundamental aspect of virus control” and an important form of “understanding your self,” Van Kerkhove said.

Trevor Bedford, Genome Epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said the example of genetic sequencing this year was averaging 59 cases of covid-19 in various parts of Ireland a year ago. Assume that passengers are in contact with the aircraft in the control network and control actions.

“The sequencing is really the conspiracy,” Bedford said.

Coronavirus sequencing in United States

On December 20, the day when British scientists published their leaflets, a Slack group became active in the United States virus viruses.

Quizas the variants of the United Kingdom and South Africa and other pre-occupant mutations also exist in the United States.

“It’s definitely hizo that the fast-acting actor”, said Bedford, who is a member of a group Slack of SPHERES, a new state consortium to coordinate the coronavirus genetic sequencing led by the Centers for Control and Prevention English).

Due to the pandemic, genomic sequencing in the United States has taken place with respect to other countries. For example, the United Kingdom has sequenced virus samples from 146,000 people. EE.UU. has followed only 58,000 people, according to the GISAID data base, although there are many more covid-19 cases.

See other countries, such as the United Kingdom and South Africa, sobering up on genomic sequencing can be difficult, says Bedford.

“By supuesto, it’s frustrating,” he said.

In South Africa, one day Oliveira received the advice of the doctors that the number of cases was increasing, he and his colleagues would only be one week away from identifying the new variant. Once British investigators receive Oliveira’s date, every three months they will find their variant and publish it in their studio.

Things are not moving fast in United States, dijo Bedford.

In the United States, laboratories that have patient coronavirus samples for patients do not work directly with the scientists who screen their samples. This means that scientists have to identify their laboratories, guardians and guardians and make legal agreements to arrest the guards.

“Part of the reason why we are having such a difficult time is that we have (are) structural problems,” Bedford said.

The differences between health care systems

South Africa and the United Kingdom, by other means, have national health services, by the laboratories that carry out the covid-19 tests and the experts who carry out the suelen work for the same entity.

“It has a unique national health system and a unique national service of microbiology, which facilitates much coordination of things”, says Dr. Gregory Armstrong, Director of the Advanced Molecular Detection Office of the National Center for Diseased Infections, Emergency Zoonotics of the CDC. “We do not have a system that is as robust as the United Kingdom system,” he said.

There is another reason why the United States has recently said that the United Kingdom has invested huge sums of money in genomic sequencing.

“The system in the United Kingdom is really the state of the art about realizing genomic vigilance,” Armstrong said. “We do not believe that we will ever be able to read to this level,” he said.

The CDC is in the process of advancing the state vigilance system, with recent subsidies of millions of dollars in state and university laboratories.

The objective of the CDC is to duplicate the number of secondary coronavirus genomes in the United States, dijo Armstrong. The follow-up is carried out in the laboratories of the CDC, state health departments, universities and private companies.

United States Seconds now has 3,000 samples per week. The CDC hopes that next week’s doubles will increase to around 6,500 per week, Thursday.

The scientists from all over the world are anxious to see the change.

“I’m optimistic that it will increase rapidly,” said Van Kerkhove.