The mutation – called E484K – was found in a variant of the coronavirus that was first spotted in South Africa two months ago. The variant has now spread to 12 other countries.
Penny Moore, associate professor at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases in South Africa, calls the mutation ‘worrying’.
“We fear that this mutation could have an impact, and what we do not know is the extent of the impact,” she said.
E484K is called an “escape mutant” because it appears to be possible to escape the antibodies produced by the vaccine.
“I’m worried,” said Alex Sigal, a virologist at the Africa Health Research Institute.
Sigal, Moore and other scientists studying the E484K mutation have yet to complete their work in the laboratory to see if the vaccine is less effective against this new variant.
Based on what they have seen so far, they say they very much doubt that E484K will render the coronavirus vaccines useless. Rather, they think that there is a possibility that the mutation alone or in combination with other mutations may reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine against the variant.
They are also concerned that E484K may be an indication that the new coronavirus is showing its ability to change before our eyes. If this mutation were to occur within a few months, other problematic mutations could follow.
“This virus may be taking the first steps on a fairly long road to vaccine resistance,” said Andrew Ward, a structural virologist at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.
“This is the beginning of a long distance,” Moore said. ‘That’s what really shook me about this. It’s a sobering wake-up call. ‘
“Escape mutant” is like a disobedient child
Imagine a teacher in front of a classroom full of rough toddlers to understand the potential danger of the E484K mutation.
After months of trying to get her class under control, the teacher finally nails it. She gets them to sit quietly in their chairs.
But after a while, one child leaves the classroom, and the other takes his place. This new kid – this new little rascal – will not sit down. The teacher’s technique of calming the children does not work with him.
The teacher here is the vaccine, and the furious student is the E484K mutation.
When the vaccines used in the US were tested this summer and fall, they nailed it down and virtually conquered the virus. But since then, parts of the virus have sometimes swapped themselves for new bits and sometimes the new bits do not act.
What they found is that E484K challenges the ability of some antibodies to neutralize the virus.
While attention has been drawn to E484K, scientists are also monitoring other mutations in the variant.
The next step is to test these mutations against antibodies created by vaccines – this is the work that scientists are doing now and hope to announce in the next few weeks.
“Escape mutant” is also found in the variant in Brazil
But even if E484K, alone or in combination with other mutations in the variant, is ultimately a problem, the variant is unlikely to escape all antibodies produced by vaccines, as the vaccines produce many antibodies.
The concern is more about what happens if the virus mutates over and over.
It is not that the coronavirus is such a fast mutator – in fact, Sigal, one of the South African researchers, calls it “a real slowpoke”. It is that the virus is spreading so fast all over the world, and every time it goes from person to person, it gets another chance to mutate.
“It creates more opportunities for the virus to learn how to be resistant to the vaccine,” said Paul Bieniasz, a virologist at Rockefeller University. “It will probably reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine over time, but we are not going to fall off a cliff tomorrow.”
Such misconduct is not expected from a coronavirus, which has always been considered relatively stable, Sigal said.
“This virus has really shown us that it can adapt and escape,” he said. “It just goes back to the first line of virology: don’t underestimate your virus.”