Filenews 16 February 2021
Another variant of the coronavirus, with an alarming number of mutations, was detected in Britain.
Known hereinafter as code B1525, it is already responsible for 32 cases within the United Kingdom, the first of which occurred in December, at the same time as the detection of others in Nigeria.
According to a report by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, the new strain has now spread to at least 10 other countries, including Denmark, the US and Australia.
They say this variant is similar to the genome of the other British variant 'Kent', B117, and contains several mutations, including E4848K in the protein spike: the 'vehicle' more or less of the corona, to infect the cells of the human body.
This is the same mutation, found in the South African and Brazilian strains of Covid-19 and which is estimated to help the virus resist the antibody counterattack. Which practically means it can reduce the effectiveness of existing vaccines.
"We don't yet know how much this [new] variant will spread," Dr. Saunders told the British guardian newspaper. Simon Clarke, associate professor of Cellular Microbiology at the University of Reading. But if its spread is widespread, he observes, "it can be assumed that immunity from any vaccine or previous infection will be alleviated."
For the time being, he stresses, it remains to be clarified the degree of communicability and mortality of the B1525 variant. In any case, British experts – such as Ravi Gupta, professor of Clinical Microbiology at the University of Cambridge – stress that the new strain should henceforth also be at the heart of diagnostic tests.
Source: news.in.gr
