What do we know to date about the Epsilon variant which already hacks 44 countries in the world and resists the effectiveness of messenger RNA vaccines

The mutation of the coronavirus known as Epsilon, first recorded in California, has started raising alarms, especially after a study conducted by biochemist at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, Matthew McCallum , published in the journal Science, where he warns against the resistance of this variant to certain vaccines.

Although in recent weeks, the world’s attention around the pandemic has focused on the strong contagion shown by the Delta variant, scientists are working to determine the danger of Epsilon.

In this direction, infectologist Eduardo López minimized for the time being to this mutation because “We already have enough with Delta” which is of global circulation. Epsilon “It’s starting to circulate, we have to see if this impact is so important or not, we will have to wait a bit,” he said..

“Variations appear when you have few vaccinated people and a large susceptible population. In order to generate a variant, the virus must reproduce in the human body, the less people we have vaccinated and / or who have not suffered from the disease, the more likely you are that the viruses will vary, change their genomic makeup, ”he explained.

“In this regard, it seems to me that we have to worry a lot more about getting vaccinated and knowing that they are of worldwide distribution because epsilon is currently regional”, even if there are already cases detected in Argentina, he stressed.

So far, the Nation’s Department of Health has reported five cases of the delta variant in the country, but no community circulation. Last Friday, this wallet and the Malbrán Institute reported a Infobae that two people with the Delta variant have been detected coronavirus in the country, but they assured that Argentina does not register community traffic of this worrying variant. These are two people who had performed a negative PCR test for COVID-19 before boarding the plane. Regarding the two new cases, the Ministry of Health indicated that the first is a 42-year-old traveler, a resident of the city of Buenos Aires, who arrived in the country on June 15 from Miami. The passenger presented a negative PCR test before the flight and a negative antigen test carried out on arrival in the country.

the June 21 The health portfolio of its Twitter account reported that the National Reference Laboratory ANLIS-Malbrán detected the Delta variant in a positive traveler from the United States. “This is a 26-year-old man who arrived in the country on June 4 from the United States. On arrival, the passenger had a negative PCR carried out 48 hours before the trip, and on entering the country, he presented a positive antigen test and the sample was referred to the reference laboratory for genomic analysis ” , indicates the press release issued by the health establishment.

Before, On June 10, the director of migration, Florencia Carignano, confirmed that two cases of the Delta variant coronavirus had been detected. Even with these individualized cases, the Department of Health pointed out that the Delta variant was not yet in community circulation.

The advance of the Delta, which emerged in India, prompted the Argentine government to change its vaccination strategy, which initially focused on inoculating as many people as possible with the first doses and now progresses with the second doses, such as the say the specialists. are essential to prevent the inevitable arrival of the third wave from generating a devastating effect.

As for Epsilon, he was already among the “Variants of care” by the World Health Organization is the subject of study by the team led by McCullam, who published in the journal Science an analysis based on 57 samples, in which he observed three mutations that make it resistant to antibodies and found in the spike protein, which is the medium used by the virus to enter cells.

The relevance of the study is based on the fact that epsilon was resistant to both antibodies generated by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and those from messenger RNA vaccines, such as those manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer.

McCullan analyzed the plasma of 15 people vaccinated with two doses of Moderna, 33 vaccinated with two doses of Pfizer and nine who had been infected with COVID-19.

The Epsilon mutation was found at early 2021 in California, United States, and by May it had already spread to 34 other countries. According to the Gisaid database for the past four weeks, it is already present in 44 countries, which include the United States, South Korea, India and Japan.

Research published in Science pointed out that epsilon is “a novel variant of concern (VOC) called CAL.20C (B.1.427 / B.1.429), originally detected in California” that “carries mutations in the glycoprotein of peak S13I in the signal peptide, W152C in the N-terminal domain (NTD) and L452R in the receptor binding domain (RBD) ”.

“Plasma from individuals vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine based on the isolation of Wuhan-1 or from convalescent individuals exhibited neutralizing titers, which were reduced from 2 to 3.5 times against variant B.1.427 / B.1.429 compared to wild type pseudoviruses. The L452R mutation reduced the neutralizing activity of 14 of 34 RBD-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). The S13I and W152C mutations resulted in a complete loss of neutralization for 10 of the 10 MTN-specific mAbs, as the antigenic surface of NTD was remodeled by a change in the signal peptide cleavage site and the formation of a new disulfide bond. He made it clear in his technical description of the study.

In Argentina they were detected five positive cases of epsilon, two in Cordoba (three in Río Tercero and one in the Cordovan capital) and another in Santa Fe, reported the Argentine Interinstitutional Genomic Project (Pais).

First identified in early 2021 in California, the Epsilon variant had spread by May to 34 other countries and, according to the Gisaid database for the past four weeks, it is already present in 44 countries, from the United States to South Korea, including India and Japan.

KEEP READING