Last week, the B.1.617 variant, first found in India, was officially classified as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization, which detailed in a report the variant and its three lineages - versions that differ slightly in the mutations in the virus's spike protein.Įarly data suggests that one of the lineages, B.1.617.2, which has been detected most frequently in the U.S. and Europe since the winter and now makes up three-quarters of coronavirus infections in the U.S. How contagious is it?Ĭurrently, the most contagious form of the coronavirus was reported to be the B.1.117 that has been dominant in the U.K. “It's misleading to make it seem as if this is something markedly different than the other variants that we've already seen,” he said. In fact, all the identified variants of concern - including the B.1.1.7 from the U.K., the B.1.351 from South Africa and the P.1 from Brazil - possess one or more mutations, he said. It's now been found in at least 44 countries, including the United States, where about 3 percent of the sequenced samples are a version of the B.1.617, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.īecause of two concerning mutations, the variant from India has been given a scary nickname “double mutant,” an incorrect term that is “completely unhelpful,” said Deepta Bhattacharya, an associate professor of immunobiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. An increase in the proportion of N440K variant in the Indian samples is also evident with almost 10 per cent of the sequences submitted in April 2021 carrying this substitution,” the researchers said.Yet, the B.1.617, which was initially identified in October, is being closely watched as it spreads around the world. “A further breakdown of the recent data indicates a gradual increase in the representation of this variant with March and April adding more of this variant than the previous months. It confirmed the increased potency of the N440K variant. The study pointed out that recent data indicate the prevalence of variants with N440K spike substitution in several parts of India, which is under the second wave of the pandemic. Stating that the N440K mutation has been reported in several viral sequences across India, the team said: “Based on our results, we predict that the higher infectious titres achieved by N440K variant could possibly lead to its higher rate of transmission.” The researchers, however, added that availability of more sequencing data in the immediate future would help understand the potential spread of this variant in more detail. “Data suggests that the proportion of N440K variant has been increasing gradually and suggesting its improved replicative fitness or increased infectivity,” they said. According to the researchers, the N440K variant belongs to the lineage of A2a strain. The research team comprised Dixit Tandel, Divya Gupta, Vishal Sah and Krishnan Harinivas Harshan. “Our studies unambiguously demonstrate that N440K variant prototype has capacity to generate significantly higher titres of infectious virus in shorter duration and suggest that this feature could promote its faster spread among certain populations,” the study, published in pre-print server ‘Bio-Rxiv’ on April 30, said. The research study involved scientists from Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and the Academy for Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. In the last two months, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana and Chhattisgarh together contributed to about 50 per cent of the samples indicating the geographicallylocalised spread of the N440K variant in India. Already one-third of infections in both Telugu states are caused by this variant and in the second wave, its presence is rapidly increasing. The mutant N440K, first found in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool city, is spreading fast in some parts of the country, including AP and Telangana, if the number of infections attributed to this mutant in March and April is any indication. This mutant appears to be fuelling the second wave of Covid-19 in certain pockets of India. HYDERABAD: Even as scientists are busy decoding the potential threat of the double mutant (B.1.617), a team of researchers from Hyderabad and Ghaziabad has found that the mutant N440K of the novel coronavirus is 10 to 1,000 times more infectious than certain strains now in circulation.
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