Researchers say there is an urgent need to determine what threat the D614G mutation – which is the dominant strain around the world – poses to people who have recovered from a different form of the virus.
Recovered Covid-19 patients in China may still be vulnerable to a mutant form of the pathogen spreading overseas, a new study says.
Antibodies found in patients who had been infected with earlier forms of the pathogen failed to neutralise the mutant strain, the scientists said in paper published on Biorxiv.org, a preprint website, which means it has not been peer-reviewed. Huang and his team selected a strain of the virus that had previously circulated in China and then manipulated it to create a man-made version containing the mutation.
However, that estimate was mostly based on computer modelling so questions remained over the possible increase in binding efficiency. “This seemingly small increase in entry activity could cause a large difference in viral infectivity in the human body,” they said. A study by IBM’s AI medical team in April warned that the D614G mutation could reduce the effectiveness of vaccine programmes that target the virus’ spike protein. A separate study by a team of researchers in Serbia last month came to a similar conclusion.
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