India is now
the epicenter of the COVID-19 epidemic. Every day for an entire week
the country reported an average of 340,000 new COVID-19 cases. This comes to
one in every three infections reported globally per day.
"The major factor in the
spread of the virus is the behavior of the people," said Rakesh Mishra,
director of the Indian Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology. "Spread
of the virus is largely because of us not taking care of each other. Variants
are just taking advantage of our carelessness."
Nonetheless, feeding the surge in
India is what is being dubbed a "double mutant" variant,
B.1.617, which had two key mutations observed in other coronavirus variants. It
has also been identified in other countries, including the U.S.
The variant was actually first
sequenced in a global database of COVID-19 variants in October 2020 but went
largely unnoticed. The B.1.617 strain carries features from two lineages, the
California variants (B.1.427 and B.1.429) and the ones in South Africa
(B.1.351) and Brazil (P.1). The Indian variant's two prominent mutations
include a position 452 of the spike protein and the second at 484. "Double
mutation" isn't a remarkably accurate description, Mishra said.
B.1.617 carries a total of 13
mutations, seven in the spike protein. An eighth mutation at the midpoint of
the immature spike protein, also found in the New York variants, can increase
the virus's contagiousness.
What about Vaccine?
Both of India's vaccines,
Covishield and Covaxin, have shown efficacy against the "Indian
strain" of coronavirus, also known as B.1.617 variant or "double
mutant", a new study has found. Preliminary results of the study conducted
on the new Indian strain of COVID-19 have revealed that it could generate only
"milder" illness in case of infection post-vaccination.
Anurag Agrawal, Director,
Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), said the initial results
showed only mild infections of the new coronavirus strain after people received
either of these vaccines.
"Initial positive neutralization
studies of B.1.617, with both post-Covaxin and Covishield sera, are
co-relatable with milder disease during post-vaccination breakthrough
infections. This is a positive while we get quantitative data for better
understanding of infection protection," he said via a tweet.
The IGIB operates under the
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
Similar results were shown during
another study conducted by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology
(CCMB), Hyderabad, recently. The study also revealed that both vaccines offer
protection against the new coronavirus strain. Experts, however, reiterated
that these were preliminary findings.
"Very preliminary but
encouraging result: #Covishield protects against #B1617. Early results using in
vitro neutralization assay show that both convalescent (prior infection) sera
and Covishield vaccinated sera offer protection against the B.1.617 variant,
CCMB Director Rakesh Mishra tweeted last week.
The "Indian strain" or
B.1.617 variant of coronavirus has three new spike protein mutations. Two of
them -- E484Q and L452R -- are important for antibody-based neutralization,
while the third one -- P681 -- allows the virus to have easy access in our
body. The new Indian strain is believed to be more infectious than previous
ones and has caused a spurt in coronavirus cases across India.
As per the World Health
Organization (WHO), the new Indian strain of coronavirus has been found in
"at least 17 countries". The international health body said the
B.1.617 variant was detected in over 1,200 sequences uploaded to the GISAID
open-access database. GISAID is a global science initiative and primary source
established in 2008 that provides open access to genomic data of influenza
viruses and the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The B.1.617 variant of SARS-CoV2
has been found prevalent largely in Maharashtra and Delhi that have been
severely hit by a devastating second wave of the pandemic.
What Researchers Say?
Ugur Sahin, chief executive
officer of BioNTech, which developed the first COVID-19 vaccine
with Pfizer, told CNBC yesterday that he is "confident" the
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is effective against the Indian variant. It has been
tested against similar "double mutants." Unfortunately, the Pfizer-BioNTech
vaccine is not yet available in India.
Sahin said, "We are
evaluating [the strain] … and the data will be available in the coming weeks.
However, we had similar double mutants in our prior testing, and we are
confident based on the data we had in the past that we might see a similar
fashion of neutralization of this virus. But we will only know it if we have
the data in our hands."
Studies are still being run
testing the existing vaccines against various other strains, and for the most
part, are effective against them, although typically not quite as effective as
they are against the original wildtype Wuhan strain.
Many vaccine manufacturers and
public health officials suspect that a booster shot of the vaccines will need
to be given to protect against variants as the original vaccine protection
fades. However, that hasn't been determined yet, though research teams are
working on it.
"If we provide a boost we
could really amplify the antibody response even above the levels that we had at
the beginning and that could give us real comfort for protection for at least
12 months, maybe 18 months," Sahin said.
Another study out of
India, yet to be peer-reviewed, found that the existing vaccines should be
effective against the Indian variant, not just the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. In
the context of the Indian outbreak, it appears that the vaccine Covaxin, most
commonly used in India, is effective against the double mutant variant.
There are two
vaccines currently available in India: Bharat Biotech's Covaxin
and the Serum Institute-AstraZeneca-Oxford Covishield vaccine. Others are
expected to be available there soon, such as Russia's Sputnik V.
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