Double Mutant Variant of Covid-19

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Recently, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) has detected a new double mutant variant of Covid-19, along with the three variants from the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil.

About the New Variant

• The new double mutant variant has E484Q mutation which can escape antibody neutralisation and L452R mutation which is associated with increased infectivity.
• It has been termed as a “variant of interest”, which requires further investigation to establish a direct link with the ongoing surge.
• Reasons for Surge
  • The main reason is a large pool of susceptible populations.
  • Whenever this population lowers its guard and does not follow Covid-19-appropriate behaviour, it gets infected by a variant or the normal virus.
• Prevention
  • Viruses will not mutate if they are not allowed to replicate.
  • Therefore, the chain of transmission has to be suppressed in order to stop mutations of the virus.
  • Testing, quarantine, and containment will further limit the spread of the virus

Mutations in Covid-19

• Like any other organism, the Covid-19 is also constantly mutating, with some changes in its genetic structure happening in every replication cycle.
• The RNA strand of the virus will replicate and will make mistakes resulting in mutations.
• Most of these mutations are inconsequential and do not alter the overall nature or behaviour of the virus.
• These mutations can introduce important changes, helping the virus to adapt or survive better.
• Three kinds of changes keenly watched are those that
  • Increase the ability of the virus to spread faster.
  • Cause more severe disease in the infected person.
  • Help the virus escape the immune response.
• India has the second-highest number of people infected with the Covid-19 during the epidemic but it has done very few genome sequences of the different variants in circulation.
  • Genome Sequencing is the process of determining the entirety, or nearly the entirety, of the DNA sequence of an organism’s genome at a single time.
• The INSACOG was set up for this purpose only with an objective to sequence the samples from at least 5% of all the infected cases through a network of ten laboratories.
• Studying genetic changes in the organism is important for understanding the origin, transmission and impact of the virus on patients.
• Reasons for low genome sequencing in India
  • Lack of funds.
  • States have not been proactively sending their samples to the laboratories.

Classification of Variants

• Variants of Concern
  • The three variants from the UK, Brazil, and South Africa have been termed as Variants of Concern (VOC) by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
    • Their genetic mutations make them more likely to escape the human immune system.
  • Both Indian vaccines (Covishield and Covaxin) are effective against both the UK and Brazil variants.
  • The research regarding the South African variant is ongoing at the moment.
• Variants of Interest
  • These are mutations found in the spike protein region of the virus.
• Variants Under Investigation
  • These are the variants that need a detailed investigation.

Source: IE