Scientists say claims that a more infectious Covid-19 strain has spread across US and Europe is 'unfounded'
New research has claimed that there is no evidence the coronavirus, originating in China, has mutated into more aggressive strains in Europe and America - despite reports of studies claiming the contrary. Researchers from the University of Sheffield and a laboratory in New Mexico, on May 5, claimed that the coronavirus racing through Europe was newer and more infectious than the version found in China.
However, on May 6, University of Glasgow experts dubbed those claims as 'unfounded', saying no version of the virus currently circulating is any more or less potent than another.
Scientists earlier sounded the alarm about a new coronavirus mutation that is of "urgent concern" as it makes the pathogen more contagious and has already spread to various places, including parts of the United States.
The mutant strain reportedly started spreading in early February in Europe, according to researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
The mutated virus has since entered the US and become the most common and aggressive strain on the East Coast. Scientists say it has now become the world-dominating strain, according to the Daily Mail.
Researchers have warned in their report -- which was posted to BioRxiv but is yet to be peer-reviewed -- that the vaccines that are currently being developed in the United States may not be effective against the mutant strain. They are now urging that their findings be considered in further work on Covid-19 shots and treatments.
The novel coronavirus, generally speaking, is a relatively stable virus -- meaning it does not mutate at high rates or speeds.
But even limited mutations can have disastrous consequences in terms of vaccine research.
According to the report, researchers at Los Alamos found a method to track mutations of the coronavirus in real-time.
The team analyzed all the viral genome sequences uploaded to the Global Initiative for Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) database and found that the novel coronavirus had a total of 14 mutations.
Among them, one strain was cause for an "early warning." Researchers noted that the mutation had occurred in the spike protein -- the part of the virus that juts out from its surface and attaches itself to human cells. They dubbed the mutated protein Spike D614G.
While it's unclear where the mutated spike first emerged, it certainly gathered momentum in Europe, per the report.
Scientists had first reported Spike D614G in March, but at the time it had only appeared seven times in the GISAID database.
"However, an early April sampling of the data from GISAID showed that G614’s frequency was increasing at an alarming pace throughout March, and it was clearly showing an ever-broadening geographic spread," researchers wrote in their April 30 report.
Having said that, the spike protein has been found to be more infective as it can bind to receptors on human lung cells more easily. Furthermore, it is more capable of dodging antibodies as compared to other strains of the coronavirus.
"Given Spike’s vital importance both in terms of viral infectivity and as an antibody target, we felt an urgent need for an 'early warning' pipeline to evaluate Spike pandemic evolution," authors of the study wrote.
"If the pandemic fails to wane, this could exacerbate the potential for antigenic drift and the accumulation of immunologically relevant mutations in the population during the year or more it will take to deliver the first vaccine," they continued.
"Such a scenario is plausible, and by attending to this risk now, we may be able to avert missing important evolutionary transitions in the virus that if ignored could ultimately limit the effectiveness of the first vaccines to clinical use," they added.
The alarming revelation of the mutation can potentially disrupt many clinical trials that have been recently kicked off in the United States, including those from Pfizer, Moderna, and Inovio.