New variant evolved from AIDS patient? Know why it’s more transmissible

The discovery of a new COVID-19 variant in South Africa is a major cause of concern for scientists. The scientists have warned that the new variant with over 30 spike mutations can possibly cause the virus to evade immunity. The details of the variant were posted on social media on Thursday.

The newly discovered variant carries an ‘extremely high number’ of mutations that may drive further waves of disease by evading the body’s defences. “Worth emphasizing this is at super low numbers right now in a region of Africa that is fairly well sampled, however, it very very much should be monitored due to that horrific spike profile,” Dr Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London wrote.

The B.1.1.529 variant was first spotted in the Southern African country of Botswana. So far, only 10 cases have been confirmed by genomic sequencing. The first case was confirmed in Botswana on November 11 and three days later South Africa confirmed a case of the same variant.

Other than Botswana, Hong Kong recorded one case where a 36-year-old man who visited South Africa from October 22 to November 11, tested positive on November 13 for this particular variant while in quarantine. The variant is called B.1.1.529 and is likely to be given a Greek code name by the World Health Organisation.

What makes new variant more transmissible?

There are mutations that make it harder for antibodies to recognise the virus and might make vaccines less effective.

The variant called B.1.1.529 have other mutations that are completely new.

The mutation P681H seen in the new variant has been reported in Alpha, Mu, some Gamma and B.1.1.318 variants.

The new variant also carries the N679K mutation which has been reported in many other COVID-19 variants.

The mutation called N501Y which has been reported in other variants of concern is also carried by the new variant.

Studies have shown that this N501Y mutation helps the variant be more transmissible.

It also allows the virus to readily bind to the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors.

It carries the P681H mutation, one of the commonly identified spike mutations in SARS CoV-2, which enhances the transmissibility.

The D614G mutation which has been reported to increase virus infectivity was also seen in the new variant.

That means the COVID-19 vaccines, which were designed using the original strain, may not be as effective.

Some of the mutations have been seen before in other variants, which gives some insight into their likely role in this variant.

How did the virus evolve?

This level of mutation has most likely come from a single patient who was unable to beat the virus.

The variant is likely to have evolved during chronic infection in an immunocompromised person.

Francois Balloux, professor of computational systems biology and director at UCL Genetics Institute, warned.

In a press release, Balloux said the immunocompromised person was possibly an untreated HIV/AIDS patient.

According to Professor Balloux, the carriage of both P681H and N679K mutation is only exceptionally rarely.