The SARS-CoV-2 variant detected in India is called B.1.617 and was sequenced for the first time in autumn 2020. Most cases of this variant have been identified in India, followed by the United Kingdom and the United States, although As of April 19, it had already been detected in 21 different countries. Given the worrying increase in incidence that India has been experiencing in recent weeks, one wonders what role this variant of the virus has in the runaway transmission that is taking place in the Asian giant.
“Currently it is not clear that B. 1,617 is the main driver of the wave of COVID-19 that India is suffering ,” explains to Science Media Center Professor of Microbiology and Public Health at the University of Cambridge Sharon Peacock. “The wave may be associated with the variant, but also with large concentrations of people, the lack of hand hygiene, masks or social distancing “. The director of the COVID-19 genomics initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute agrees with this assessment: “So far only around a thousand sequences have been published from India out of around four million cases in this wave,” he explains to Science Media Center. “This variant had already been identified at the end of last year so, being the driving agent of this wave in India, it has taken several months to cause it, suggesting that it is probably less transmissible than the British variant.”
The ‘double mutation’ variant
Variant B.1.617 has attracted attention because it contains two mutations that have been associated with increased transmissibility and the ability to evade immune protection . “Actually, B.1.617 has 13 mutations that result in amino acid changes. The term ‘double mutant’ is used to refer to mutations that affect protein S (in this case the E484Q and L452R mutations), but I think it is an inaccurate and confusing term, “says Peacock. “More evidence is needed to understand the changes in the virus that result from the specific combination of mutations present in B.1.617.”
Peacock explains that in the United Kingdom, the Public Health Agency is still analyzing the case of B.1.617 “it is a variant with mutations for which there is high confidence predictive data, or laboratory data, that support an adverse phenotypic change. significant, but does not meet the definition of a variant of concern, and there is evidence of community transmission in the UK or abroad. ” The counterpart body in the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is also currently analyzing the implications of the circulation of this new variant of SARS-CoV-2. In Spain, an Order from the Ministry of Health has established a mandatory 10-day quarantine for all travelers coming from India.
