U.K. and South Africa combined variant of SARS-CoV-2, nucleic acid detection methods all fail

Reporter : Liming / Editor: Mei Lan / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2021/02/19/a103057916.html / Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA

Image : On 27 December 2020, two medical staff from Helsinki University Hospital in Finland are entering the medical building. (Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP via Getty Images)

Recently, a new variant strain of SARS-CoV-2 (CCP virus) was discovered in Finland. This strain combines the characteristics of the British and South African mutant viruses and cannot be detected by any current nucleic acid detection method. Previously, California, the United States, had discovered a syncytial virus composed of two new variant viruses, and its infectiousness and drug resistance might be increasing.

According to a report by the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation (Yleisradio), the University of Helsinki's Institute of Biotechnology and Vita Lab recently discovered a new variant strain in a patient with SARS-CoV-2 in southern Finland and named it "Fin -796H".

Researchers have found through preliminary studies that the "Fin-796H" strain does not seem to belong to any known evolutionary branch of the CCP virus but the strain incorporates the characteristics of the mutant virus previously found in the UK and South Africa, and this strain cannot be detected by any nucleic acid detection method approved by the World Health Organization.

Ilkka Julkunen, a professor of virology at the University of Helsinki, told the media that there is no clear evidence to show whether this strain is easier to spread, and it is not yet known whether the vaccine is effective against it.

It is still not known where the mutation of the "Fin-796H" virus occurred, but considering the significant decline in the number of confirmed cases in Finland recently, the research team believes that the mutation of the virus may have occurred in countries other than Finland.

Earlier, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) announced that it had discovered a new variant combination of the CCP virus in California. This is the first time that humans have discovered a combination of two different variant virus strains after the outbreak of the CCP virus epidemic.

According to information released by LANL, this new variant syncytial virus is formed by the combination of the British variant strain "B.1.1.7" and the new variant strain "B.1.429" discovered in California. Because the infectivity of the "B.1.1.7" strain is significantly stronger than that of other strains, and the "B.1.429" strain has the characteristics of being able to fight antibodies, scientists worry that the combination of the two will evolve the emergence of new variants of viruses that are more infectious and resistant to drugs, which in turn allows the pandemic to enter a new stage.

In response, Sergei Pond, a professor of biology at Temple University in Pennsylvania, said, “When this happens at a considerable speed, the epidemic may reach a tipping point.”

In addition, according to a Japanese media report on the 18th, the research team of Takeuchi Takeuchi, a lecturer at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, announced that from the end of December last year to mid-January this year, the research team detected a new variant virus from three people diagnosed with covid. It can be confirmed that this strain is different from the variant viruses that have been found in the UK or other countries.

The research team said that they found the "E484K" gene mutation on the surface of the new variant virus, and this mutation may weaken the function of the antibody.