Japanese scientists allocated the key mutation of the “Indian strain” Coronavirus.
A new dangerous strain appeared in India last year and began to actively spread on the planet in the spring. It differs from other varieties of SARS-COV-2 with a set of several previously encountered mutations, which increase its infinity and give it resistance to the action of antibodies.
A group of biologists from Japan under the leadership of Associate Professor Tokyo Keia Sato collected several hundred samples of the Indian version of the virus and compared their genomes. It turned out that the genome contained a P681R mutation. It is located in that part of the SARS-COV-2 genome, which encodes the proteins of his shell, responsible for penetrating the virus into the cells, transmits TASS.
experiments showed that the P681R mutation reduces the total contagiousness of Kovida, but at the same time increases the fusion rate of its proteins with the cell shell, and also speeds up the transmission of the virus between the cells. All this significantly reduces the likelihood that the particles of the virus are recognized and neutralized with antibodies, and contributes to its rapid spread in the body.