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A recent study found that the new Corona virus, which first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has mutated “dangerously” in the form that currently heavily affects Europe and the United States.
The study, prepared in collaboration between the University of North Carolina and the Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Japan in Tokyo, said the virus now sweeping Europe and the United States is “much more contagious “of the Wuhan strain, which scientists call” the original strain “.
According to the results of the study, which was highlighted by the American scientific journal “Science”, “the protein on the surface of the virus that gives it the ability to cling to the cells of the victims has changed a lot”, which has increased the potential of the microorganism to infecting more people and has greatly expanded its spread.
The predicted protein is what appears as bumps in microscopic images of the Coronavirus and gives it its characteristic coronary shape.
However, researchers have not yet fully understood the effect of the mutation on the characteristics of the virus.
The study revealed that the modified version of the virus has spread since last March and was first detected in Japan, noting that mutations are one of the defining characteristics of viruses in general.
After the experiments on mice, lead researcher Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a professor of virology at the Tokyo University Institute of Medical Sciences, said: “The mutation greatly increased the ability of the virus to spread.”
Kawaoka believed the mutation “may explain the cause of the out-of-control spread of the virus” in the United States and Europe, unlike China, which has almost fully recovered.
Fortunately, the researchers’ data indicated that vaccines currently under development would still be effective against the mutations.
However, the other principal investigator, professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, USA, Ralph Barrick, stressed the need to “monitor and understand the consequences” of the new viral mutations.
Barrick said such mutations “appear constantly” and could lead to an increase “in the severity of the disease, its chances of transmission, the range of host organisms (not just humans) and immunity caused by the vaccine.
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