Virologists around the world are on alert for the appearance of a coronavirus mutation that can reduce the effectiveness of vaccines against COVID – 19.
According to CNN, the mutation, called E 484 K, is found in a variant of the coronavirus that was first detected in South Africa two months ago. That variant has now spread to other 12 countries .
But that the virus mutes is not the only problem, since the recipe for catastrophe is easy to follow, according to a scientist who published his opinion anonymously on networks.
The situation is delicate, he pointed out, with the United Kingdom and other countries taking the controversial decision to delay the second injection of the vaccine to have more doses in the first round and to be able to vaccinate more people at risk. Many experts believe that waiting three months between one puncture and another can cause defenses to weaken enough for the virus learns to defeat them.
After publishing the sarcastic note, the scientist took a step forward. It is about Paul Bieniasz , a virologist at Rockefeller University, in New York,
“Allowing the virus to circulate in an uncontrolled way, accumulating genetic diversity, and then incompletely protecting the population with vaccines is what one would do to generate vaccine-resistant mutants, ”says Bieniasz.
Musings of an anonymous, pissed off virologist. pic.twitter.com/IVU1COZPof
– Paul Bieniasz (@PaulBieniasz) January 2, 2021
And it seems that this is what has happened, with the discovery of the new mutation in South Africa.
Penny Moore , associate professor at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases of South Africa, called the mutation “alarming “
” We fear that this mutation may have an impact, and what we do not know is the extent of that impact, “he said.
E 484 K is called “escapist mutation” because it has been shown that it could escape some of the antibodies produced by the vaccine.
“I’m worried,” Alex Sigal told CNN , virologist at the Africa Health Research Institute.
Despite the signs and suspicions of alarm, work has yet to be completed in the laboratory to see if the vaccine is less effective against this new variant.
At the moment, experts suspect that this mutation, E 484 K, may by itself or in combination with other mutations, decrease the efficacy of the vaccine against the variant, but not render it useless,
They are also concerned that E 484 K may be a indication that the new coronavirus is showing its ability to change before our eyes. If this mutation happened in a matter of months, other troublesome mutations could follow.
“This virus could be taking the first steps on a fairly long road to vaccine resistance,” said Andrew Ward, virologist Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.
“It is the beginning of a long journey. That’s what really scares me about this. It’s a sobering wake-up call, ”Moore explained.
When vaccines used in the US were put to the test last year, they were successful and practically brought the virus down. But since then, parts of the virus have sometimes been exchanged for new pieces, and sometimes those new pieces don’t behave as expected or as they should.
To test these new pieces, the researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle and elsewhere have analyzed plasma from patients who recovered from COVID – 19 to see if your antibodies can fight E 484 K and other mutations.
What the scientists found that E 484 K challenges the ability of some antibodies to neutralize the virus. They are also on the lookout for other mutations in the variant.
The next step is to test these mutations against the antibodies created by vaccines ; That is the work that scientists are doing now and that they hope to announce in the coming weeks.
The concern is greater about what happens when the virus mutates over and over again.
It is not that the coronavirus mutates so fast; in fact, Sigal, one of the South African researchers, called it “slow.” The virus is spreading so rapidly around the world, and every time it passes from one person to another, it has another chance to mutate.
“This creates more opportunities for the virus to learn to be resistant to the vaccine, “said Paul Bieniasz, a virologist at Rockefeller University. “Over time, the efficacy of the vaccine is likely to decrease, but we are not going to fall off a cliff tomorrow.”
Such misconduct was not expected from a coronavirus, which is always has been considered relatively stable, Sigal concluded.
