Good news for vaccine development: Coronavirus has six strains but shows little variation
Even as the novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc across the world, more than 160 plus groups globally are putting in accelerated efforts to produce a vaccine for COVID-19. A new study has also given birth to renewed hopes in the development of a viable vaccine for highly infectious contagion. Yes, recent research has shed light on the fact that even though the SARS-CoV-2 virus has atleast six different strains, the novel contagian does not show a lot of variation. Let’s understand why it is good news for the quest in developing a vaccine.
What does the study say
The research has been published in the journal ‘Frontiers in Microbiology’, which is being touted as the most extensive research conducted on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. To conduct the research, the scientists carefully analyzed 48,635 coronavirus genomes isolated by researchers all over the world.
Six strains of coronavirus
The researchers at the University of Bologna in Italy found out that as of now, there are six strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The original strain is the L strain, which emerged in Wuhan, China at the time of the outbreak and its first mutation is the S strain which emerged in the early 2020. After this came the V and G strains in the mid-January, as per the researchers.
The most widespread strain of COVID-19
According to the researchers, G strain is the most widespread mutation of the novel coronavirus to date. This strain mutated into strain GH and GR by the end of February 2020 and the two strains actually account for almost 74 per cent of all the gene sequences studied by the scientists. While the L and V strains are slowly disappearing, strains G, GH and GR are increasing globally.
Low evolutionary change in the coronavirus is good news for vaccine development
The findings of the study also shed light on the fact that despite having atleast six prominent mutations, the novel coronavirus did not show a lot of variability. As per the research, the novel coronavirus shows “approximately seven mutations per sample.”
According to a report published in PTI, the low rate of variability (low evolutionary change) signifies that “the treatments we are developing, including a vaccine, might be effective against all the virus strains," said Federico Giorgi, who is a researcher at University of Bologna, and coordinator of the study.
It should be kept in mind that common influenza has more than double variability rate when compared to the novel coronavirus, which is probably why influenza shots need to be updated every year.