But scientists said it was “surprising” the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to be transmissible from the start.
London:
The novel coronavirus has been given “little change” to convert to humans from bats, according to a new study which shows that the ability of the virus to change from one person to another in the flying mammals before jumping to the new human guest.
The study, published in the journal PLOS Biology, evaluated hundreds of thousands of sequencing genomes of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and found that for the first 11 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was very little ” significant genetic mutation ” observed in the coronavirus.
However, he noted that some modifications such as the D614G mutation, and a similar print in the virus’s spike protein have affected its biology.
“This does not mean that no changes have taken place, non-significant evolutionary mutations accumulate and ‘surf’ across millions of transmission events as they do in all viruses,” he explained. first study author Oscar MacLean from Glasgow University Virus Center. Research in Scotland.
But scientists said it was “surprising” the ability of SARS-CoV-2 to be transmissible from the start.
“Viruses that jump to a new host species usually take some time to get changes to become as viable as SARS-CoV-2 at release, and most never. go beyond that level, resulting in localized spills or local outbreaks, “said Sergei Pond, another co – author of the study from Temple University in the US.
Analyzing the mutations made by the novel coronavirus and associated sarbecoviruses – the group of viruses belong to the COVID virus from bats and pangolins – the scientists found evidence of a moderate change, but all before SARS-CoV-2 appeared in humans.
Based on this observation, the researchers said that SARS-CoV-2 came with a ready ability to capture humans and other mammals, with these properties likely to evolve into bats before jumping into humans.
“While‘ ‘easy’ ’intermediate sex cannot be detected, collectively, our results support the SARS-CoV-2 promoter to be able to effectively deliver human-to-human transmission as a result of its evolving history in bats, not humans, created a relatively common virus, ”the scientists in the study wrote.
Although the novel coronavirus is still plagued by the human immune response in most diseases, the scientists warned that it is now moving away faster than the January 2020 variant that was used in all routine vaccines to build immunity.
Conventional vaccines will continue to work against most of the circulation variables, but as more time passes, and as the difference between the numbers of vaccinated and non-vaccinated people increases, they said increased chance of the virus escaping vaccines.
“It was the first race to develop a vaccine. The race now is to get the global vaccine as soon as possible,” said David L Robertson, lead author of the study from Glasgow University.