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The mutation – called E484K – was found in a variant of the coronavirus first spotted in South Africa two months ago. This variant has now spread to 12 other countries.
Penny Moore, associate professor at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases in South Africa, called the mutation “alarming”.
“We are concerned that this mutation may 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 has been shown to be able to escape some of the antibodies produced by the vaccine.
“I am 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 lab work to see if the vaccine is less effective against this new variant.
Based on what they have seen so far, they say they strongly doubt that E484K will make coronavirus vaccines unnecessary. On the contrary, they believe that it is possible that the mutation – alone or in combination with other mutations – could decrease the effectiveness of the vaccine against the variant.
They are also concerned that E484K is 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, structural virologist at Scripps Research in La Jolla, Calif.
“This is the start of a long journey,” said Moore. “That’s what really rocked me about it. It’s a sobering wake-up call.”
“Mutant Escape” is like a disobedient child
To understand the potential danger posed by the E484K mutation, imagine a teacher standing in front of a classroom full of rowdy first-graders.
After months of trying to master her class, the teacher finally succeeds. She gets them to stay seated in their chairs.
But after a while, one child leaves the classroom and another takes his place. This new child – this new little rascal – will not sit down. The teacher’s technique of calming children does not work with him.
The professor here is the vaccine, and the naughty student is the E484K mutation.
When the vaccines used in the United States were put to the test this summer and fall, they nailed it, practically conquering the virus to subdue it. But since then parts of the virus have sometimes swapped for new bits and sometimes those new bits don’t behave.
What they found is that E484K challenges the ability of certain antibodies to neutralize the virus.
While attention has focused on E484K, scientists are also keeping an eye out for other mutations in the variant.
The next step is to test these mutations against the antibodies created by the vaccines – this is work scientists are doing now and hope to announce in the coming weeks.
“Mutant escape” also found in a variant in Brazil
But even if E484K – alone or in combination with other variant mutations – ends up being a problem, the variant is unlikely to escape all the antibodies produced by vaccines, since vaccines produce many antibodies.
The concern is more about what happens when the virus mutates over and over again.
It’s not that the coronavirus is such a rapid mutator – in fact Sigal, one of the South African researchers, called it “a real slowpoke”. It’s because the virus is spreading so quickly across the world, and every time it passes from person to person, it has another chance to mutate.
“It creates more opportunities for the virus to learn how to be resistant to the vaccine,” said Paul Bieniasz, virologist at Rockefeller University. “It will probably reduce the effectiveness of the vaccines over time, but we are not going to fall off a cliff tomorrow.”
Such inappropriate behavior was 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 can escape,” he said. “It comes down to the first rule of virology: don’t underestimate your virus.”
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