The so-called double mutation coronavirus found in Maharashtra may become the most common among all mutant variants in India, according to genome sequences submitted by Indian scientists to a worldwide database, according to a recent analysis taken into account when it was detected. .
The analysis shows for the first time how the detection of different variants of the coronavirus may have changed.
The double mutation virus – now classified as B.1.617 – was the most common in the samples that were at 24% order in the 60 days before 2 April. The variant was first detected on October 5 and was relatively unclear until it started appearing in increasing numbers of samples in January, the Indian situation report on outbreak.info showed. On April 1, it was 80% of all analyzed genome sequence of mutant variants sent by India to the global repository GISAID.
The second variant most found in the last 60 days was the British variant, or B.1.1.7, in 13% of the samples, according to the assessment by scientists from Scripps Research.
Both trends could be of concern to India, and, at least to some extent, explain the outbreak pattern. B.1.617 was first found in a large number of samples in Maharashtra, the first place of the second wave of infection that added to April 7 more than half of the new cases recorded in the country.
The researchers from outbreak.info added that these data may not reflect the true occurrence patterns. “SARS-CoV-2 (hCoV-19) sequence is not a random sample of mutations. As a result, this report does not indicate the true occurrence of the mutations, but rather our best estimate. ”
The data may also hang skewed, depending on whether all genomes are sequenced, although the trends – where B.1.617 has grown gradually compared to other variants among samples – support the overall pattern.
But a top official involved in India’s coronavirus sequencing efforts said the findings were consistent with what they had observed on the ground.
“Almost 60 to 80% of the samples from Maharashtra have the variant; the appearance should be similar in Gujarat. Elsewhere it is below 10 to 20%. Since it barely exists in December, it is now found everywhere we look. We now have a separate column for the variant for each state, ‘says Anurag Agarwal, director of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, one of the ten laboratories under Insacog.
‘We have a reasonable idea of what mutated variant is common; but the most important thing is that everyone increases, ”he added.
‘The B.1.617 variant is common in the West in Maharashtra and Gujarat. The B.1.1.7 variant is common in the north in Punjab. In South India, the one with N440K mutation is common, but it seems to be quiet. Eventually one of the other variants will reach there. And in the East we do not have a specific variant, but the South African variant is quite common in Bangladesh, causing almost 80% of the cases so that it can move to India. This will be troublesome for the AstraZeneca vaccine. ”
The double mutation refers, among others, to specific changes indicated by E484Q (glutamate is replaced by glutamine at the 484th place of the vein protein) and L452R (replacement of leucine with arginine at the 452nd position).
Both are being tested to give the virus the ability to evade immunity to a past infection, even vaccinations. L452R was also found in a variant distributed in California, USA, where it was involved in a major outbreak earlier this year. In an interview with HT on Wednesday, K VijayRaghavan, India’s most important scientific adviser, said that B.1.617 can now be considered a “variant of concern”, or VOC.
The British variant, B.1.1.7, has been confirmed to be more transferable and has also been implicated in a major revival of affairs in the UK.
A second scientist who attempted the sequel said more evidence was needed to link mutations to the case trends. ‘The variant with double mutations is increasing in the country. But the increase in cases can not only be attributed to the mutated variants. Human behavior plays a very important role in transmission; in the UK when the new variant started spreading an exclusion, it controlled the spread, ‘says Dr Rakesh Mishra, director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), one of the ten laboratories at Insacog.
Dr Saumitra Das, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics – Kalyani, said: ‘We could not determine that the new variant is the reason for the faster spread of the infection during the second wave; it is the behavior of the people. ”
The analysis, published on outbreak.info, also showed that a large number of B.1.617 samples were detected in West Bengal. The 117 B.1.617 samples in Bengal made up 9% of the genomes followed so far in the condition. In Maharashtra, at 120, there were more samples, but this was 6% of the 1,931 samples followed.
‘To describe the occurrence of sets of mutations in our Mutation Situation Reports, we rely on shared virus sequences from the GISAID Initiative. “While applying filters to remove low-quality and unreasonable metadata sequences, as described in our methods, we rely on the accuracy of the sequences and sample metadata laid down in GISAID,” the website outbreak.info said.
In total, the B.1.617 variant was found in 408 series sampled around the world. Of these, 265 were found in India out of the 8 455 series analyzed in the outbreak.info report.