Is the D614G coronavirus mutation a new, less deadly strain?

A version of coronavirus known as D614G has been in the headlines in recent days, after a Malaysian official said it was linked to two outbreaks and claimed it could affect vaccine development. This was followed by a disease expert claiming that D614G could be more infectious but less deadly, potentially explaining its downfall. COVID-19 death rate worldwide.

Paul Tambyahsaid a senior consultant at the National University of Singapore and president-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases Reuters on Tuesday, evidence suggests that the proliferation of D614G in some parts of the world has been accompanied by falling death rates. This indicates that it may be less deadly than other forms of the virus, he said.

“Maybe it’s a good thing to have a more infectious but less deadly virus,” said Tambyah.

He made the comment after the Malaysian health director general said the mutation was linked to two outbreaks, Reuters reported.. Noor Hisham Abdullah claimed that D614G was ten times more infectious than other mutations and that vaccines in development might not be able to fight it.

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Over the past few days, Google searches for D614G in the United States have increased amid reports suggesting a ‘new strain’ of coronavirus had emerged.

But experts said D614G is not a new strain, but rather a mutation, and has already been linked to outbreaks in Europe and the United States. It is also unlikely to affect vaccine development, and the decline in deaths cannot be related to just one factor.

What is the D614G mutation?

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Mutations may sound alarming, but they are a normal part of the life cycle of viruses. Germs are made up of genetic material, called RNA, enclosed in proteins. When a virus infects a host, it makes new copies of its genetic data so that it can replicate. This process leads to small changes in the genetic information of the virus, called mutations.

According to Oscar MacLean, a bioinformatician at the Center for Virus Research at the University of Glasgow, there have been more than 20,000 mutations in the coronavirus in the pandemic so far. The D614G is the best-known example, ”he said. Newsweek.

The D614G mutation affects an amino acid on the spike protein that the virus uses to invade our cells. He said it “almost always coexists” with another mutation that affects how the virus replicates its genetic material.

D614G “has been the dominant form of SARS-CoV-2 in Europe and the United States for some time now,” he said.

Echoing MacLean, Dr Julian Tang, Honorary Associate Professor of Respiratory Sciences at the University of Leicester, said in a statement “that it is now probably the predominant SARS-CoV-2 genotype in most regions of the world. “

MacLean already said Newsweek you have to be careful about calling a mutation a new “strain”.

“By definition of having unique mutations, we have thousands of ‘strains’ of SARS-CoV-2 [the coronavirus], however, all of these viruses are expected to be functionally very similar, and so it is somewhat meaningless to use this definition, ”he said.

Is D614G more infectious?

Ian Jones, professor of virology at the British University of Reading, said Newsweek: “That D614G continues to spread confirms that it has a Darwinian advantage in the virus world which is in agreement with biochemical data which shows that it appears to be a bit more effective [at] infect the cells in the laboratory. And generally, viruses tend to become more infectious and less pathogenic over time. “

At this point in the pandemic, it seems “very likely” that the combination of two mutations he previously described will increase its ability to spread, MacLean said, adding: “However, there is uncertainty about the magnitude of this effect. “

Is D614G less lethal?

MacLean described the link between D614G and lower death rates as “weak” and said rigorous analyzes failed to find an effect on death rates.

The combination of the sheer amount of data from the pandemic and the “ever-changing situation” of the pandemic makes it easy to compare things and find correlations “by chance,” he said.

Jones said it is “very premature” to conclude from anecdotal reports that the virus is weakening in patients.

“Knowledge of how to treat patients is also increasing over time, so there could be many reasons the death rate is falling, including treatments getting better,” he said. declared.

Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the Norwich School of Medicine at the University of East Anglia, said in a statement that while it is “certainly plausible” that D614G is becoming more infectious and less fatal, “it is unclear what the actual evidence is behind this statement or if it is just a suggestion. “

More research is needed to prove that the lower death rate is due to the new strain and not other factors, he said. These include the fact that more young people catch the virus than in March, April and May; that doctors are getting better and better treat the virus; and because screening has grown, less sick people are included in the numbers used to calculate the death rate, causing it to go down.

Another factor that may be at play is that some of the more susceptible have died, leaving behind a “more robust human population” with a lower risk of dying.

It is not possible to say that the mutation causes less severe disease without performing a comparative analysis with the parent strain, he said.

Will this affect vaccine development?

Tambyah and Sebastian Maurer–Stroh of Singapore’s Science, Technology and Research Agency told Reuters that the mutation was unlikely to affect vaccine creation efforts because the changes in D614G did not affect areas that immune system recognize.

Likewise, MacLean said: “The impact of D614G on vaccines under development is negligible.”

Tang said, “Vaccines based on the previous form of the virus should still be effective – although other mutations may well occur by the time these vaccines are licensed for general use.”

Look ahead, MacLean said: “it will be important to continue monitoring for mutations that could provide immune breakout over the coming years, but there is no evidence for this in mutations seen at notable frequencies so far, and not for D614G in particular. “