Alert for a new variant of the coronavirus discovered in São Paulo

Scientists have been warning for months about the appearance of new variants in the absence of prevention and vaccination against COVID-19. The more SARS-CoV-2 spreads, the more mutations there will be and the more variants of the virus, some more aggressive, resistant Yes mortal.

According to what has been revealed by scientists, Brazil is now the scene of this theory: a new variant, called P.4, was detected in 21 communes of St.Paul. Researchers believe it is a derivative from the same lineage that gave birth to the P.1 (from Manaus), one of the strains – with English (B.1.1.7.) – more dangerous of SARS-CoV-2 found to date.

The Brazilian Society of Virology (SBV) reported that this new variant -discovered on May 4 at the Mutation L452R in protein Peak virus, the same detected in variants from india (B.1.617) and California. It is believed to have a greater power of infection and resistance to natural antibodies of people already with the disease.

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In addition, they believe that it would be a derivative of the much feared P.1 (from Manaus), which forced several Latin American countries to close its borders to prevent its spread. This variant of Manaus – also detected in Argentina – is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a “Worrisome variant”, as well as English, South African and Indian strains.

Although the researchers assure that it is already growing throughout São Paulo, they are still studying whether this new variant has the same characteristics and dangerousness than P.1, up to three times more contagious what the others. The latter has alerted the world and caused deaths in many countries because, in addition to spreading much faster, it is more resistant vaccines, more aggressive and mortal than the original version of SARS-CoV-2.

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Brazil – with a population of 212 million inhabitants – is the second country with the most deaths from covid (452,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic), behind the United States, and the third with the most contagions, after the United States and India. In addition to Manaus P.1, Brazil has the variant P.2 from Rio de Janeiro, the P.1.2 (an evolution of P.1) and now the P.4 of San Pablo.

What does P.1 look like and why is it so dangerous?

So far, what is known about this variant is that it appeared last November, in the city of Manau, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. As reported by the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation, the so-called P.1 is between 1.4 and 3 times more transmissible than the strains that came before it.

It is a variant with 17 mutations, some of which are protein S (Peak), responsible for binding to receptors in human cells and thus facilitating the infection. These mutations would promote the spread of the virus faster than previous versions.

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The first infection was identified on December 6. “Next, we looked at how quickly P.1 outperformed the other variants and found that the proportion of P.1 increased from 0 to 87% in about eight weeks, “he said Nuno Faria, virus expert Imperial College from London.

In a study on the appearance of virus and his broadcast in the city of Manaus, in the Amazon rainforest, scientists said that this variant had a “Unique constellation of mutations”, so it quickly became a variant dominant.

As stated by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this variant “contains a set of additional mutations that could affect your ability to be recognized by antibody“.