COVID-19 variants are spreading rapidly - Here's why you need to worry
At a time when COVID-19 variants are spreading rapidly across the world giving new challenges to the health officials, new research has ushered in lights on why these virus variants are so infectious. The two coronavirus causing SARS-CoV-2 variants one from the UK and the other one from South Africa have become a major cause of concern in several corners of the world after reports proved that these variants can infect an individual in a much deadlier way than the previous variants.
The researchers of the recent study have indicated that the UK coronavirus variant which is also known as B.1.1.7 has mutated several times in the past few months. One of the most concerning mutations out of all these is N501Y in the receptor-binding domain that interacts with the ACE2 receptor. According to the study authors, this particular mutation can cause major health complications and has the ability to spread rapidly from one individual to another. "This N501Y mutation provides a much higher efficiency of binding, which in turn makes the virus more infectious," said Victor Padilla-Sanchez, a research scientist at The Catholic University of America.
Coming to the next COVID-19 variant, at a time when the world was reeling under the threat of coronavirus, the scientists detected a new variant of the virus which was spreading across the UK. It was later named the UK coronavirus variant. This variant was first detected in September 2020 and is now causing 98 per cent of all Covid-19 cases in the UK. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the UK variant is one of several variants of concern along with others that have emerged in South Africa and Brazil.
The South Africa variant emerged in October 2020, and has more important changes in the spike protein, making it more dangerous than the UK variant. According to the researchers, it involves a key mutation -- called E484K -- that helps the virus evade antibodies and parts of the immune system that can fight coronavirus based on experience from prior infection or a vaccine.
Since the variant escapes immunity the body will not be able to fight the virus, the team said. All three variants have undergone changes to their spike protein -- the part of the virus which attaches to human cells. As a result, they are better at infecting cells and spreading them.
In the study which was published in the journal Research Ideas and Outcomes, the team presented a computational analysis of the structure of the spike glycoprotein bound to the ACE2 receptor where the mutations have been introduced.
Speaking to the media, the study author Padilla-Sanchez said, "I've been analyzing a recently published structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike bound to the ACE2 receptor and found why the new variants are more transmissible."
Sanchez further added, "These findings have been obtained using the University of California - San Francisco Chimera software and molecular dynamics simulations using the Frontera supercomputer of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)".
Amid the mass vaccine rollout in the country, the virus threat is still lingering on us. On Wednesday, India recorded 47,262 fresh coronavirus cases in a day, the highest single-day rise so far this year, taking the nationwide COVID-19 tally to 1,17,34,058. The daily rise in infections was the highest recorded in 132 days, while the country's COVID-19 death toll increased to 1,60,441, with 275 new fatalities, the highest in around 83 days.
As we are experiencing a steep rise in the number of active COVID-19 cases in the country, everyone should strictly follow the basic pandemic rules which include wearing proper masks, sanitizing hands, and maintaining social distancing. Health experts have stated that one of the most important steps, in order to stop the virus spread, is to stay protected and abode by the pandemic portals that been set by the health ministry. Keep tracking your symptoms and never ignore anything unusual.
