The researchers have discovered the third new variant of the coronavirus in the United States and say it may be the most easily transmitted so far.
A team from Southern Illinois University Carbondale traced the first appearance of the new variant, called 20C-US, to Texas in May 2020.
The variant carries several mutations, including the spike protein, which the virus uses to enter and infect human cells.
Scientists say the variant has not spread significantly beyond the country’s borders, but is more prevalent in the Upper Midwest.
Furthermore, the variant constitutes almost 50 percent of all genomes sequenced between November 1 and December 30, which means that it is probably very widespread.
“We anticipate that 20C-US may already be the most dominant variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States,” wrote the team in a pre-printed article.
“The continued evolution of the 20C-US, as well as other dominant region-specific variants emerging around the world, should continue to be monitored with genomic, epidemiological and experimental studies to understand viral evolution and predict future results of the pandemic.”
20C-US is now a growing list of mutations discovered in countries like the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil.
The news comes just a day after Ohio researchers announced the first discovery of two homemade variants – one virtually identical to a variant that emerged in the UK and the other completely exclusive to the U.S. and dominant in the capital Columbus.
Researchers at Southern Illinois University Carbondale discovered a third new coronavirus variant, called 20C-US, first detected in Texas in May 2020. Photo: Teresa Armendariz, nurse at Odessa Regional Medical Center tests a person for COVID-19 in the west of the Texas Horse Center in Odessa, Texas, December 8
Genome sequencing revealed an increase in the new variant in July 2020 (left) and, between November 1 and December 31, represented 50% of all US genomes (right)
Led by Dr. Keith Gagnon, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at SIU, the team first realized the possibility of the new variant while examining sequencing data from the Illinois genome.
“The data kind of jumped off the page when we looked at it, so we started looking at the national data and later on the data from the global genome sequence,” Gagnon said in a press release.
Viral genomes were sequenced from samples collected from March 2020 to the present day.
“The data kind of jumped off the page when we looked at it, so we started looking at the national data and later on the data from the global genome sequence,” Gagnon said in a press release.
The team began to sequence viral genomes from samples taken from March 2020 to the present and one variant has become more pronounced than the rest.
To see if it was present at the national level, the researchers randomly analyzed 3.3% of the US genomes available in the global genomic database GISAID.
The first appearance was found in a sample collected in the Houston, Texas, metropolitan area on May 20, 2020.
Following the variant over time, there was a notable expansion in the presence of the variant in July 2020, which coincides with the second wave of the pandemic in the United States, in states like Wisconsin and Illinois.
However, between November 1 and December 31, almost 50% of all sequenced genomes in the United States are the new variant.
The researchers suggest that this means that the 20C-US ‘has exceeded 50 percent of penetrance to become the most dominant variant in the US’
The variant did not spread significantly beyond the U.S. borders and is more prevalent in the Upper Midwest (above)
The researchers say the virus has several mutations, including two in the protein spike, which it uses to enter and infect cells. In the photo: illustration of the coronavirus CDC
However, it has a high prevalence in the east and midwest regions and has not spread widely to the western half of the U.S.
‘This one. We found. It is definitely homemade and widespread, and we are the first to characterize it, ‘said Gagnon.
The 20C-US has been reported in other countries, including Australia, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, but at low levels.
The first mutations the virus showed were in genes related to the maturation of virus particles – a process by which a virus breaks down from a host cell and is activated to infect more cells – and the processing of viral proteins.
Gagnon says that all of this is important for virus production.
Since then, the new variant has formed two new mutations in the spike protein, which shows that it is evolving.
Evidence is lacking, but the team says the combination of reduced lethality rates and an increase in COVID-19 infections suggests that the new variant is highly transmissible, but causes only an intermediate disease.
Dr. Daniel Jones of Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, who discovered the Columbus variant, told DailyMail.com that the Illinois variant “looks closely related, but not exactly identical.”
Jones said this means that the two groups of researchers – in Ohio and Illinois – are probably tracking variants of the same growth.
With the first doses of newly approved vaccines being administered across the country, Gagnon said it was not known whether the variant will impact its effectiveness.
“Based on the mutations so far, I don’t think it will significantly affect the vaccine’s effectiveness,” he said.
“The problem is that the virus continues to evolve and, since May, has acquired three mutations, two of them in the spike protein, one of which can affect the binding of the antibody. There are many unknowns. ‘
Both Pfizer and Moderna have tested their vaccines against international variants and say they expect the jabs to provide protection.