Mutant viruses: towards an endless pandemic?

The emergence of several highly contagious variants of SARS-CoV-2 from South Africa (501.V2), Great Britain (VOC 202012/01) and Japan, she announces the worst-case scenario: a cascade of mutations that could give rise to a virus that is both more virulent but also more dangerous for humans? The hypothesis is considered unlikely but it has its defenders because recombination is a well-controlled characteristic of coronaviruses to ensure their survival. In a study conducted on 84 SARS-CoV-2 genomes , researcher Huiguang Yi of the Shenzhen University of Science and Technology mentioned this possibility by showing that some strains could only be formed by recombination with another.

To deceive our immune system, coronaviruses indeed have a formidable weapon: replication enzymes that bypass the RNA quality control system. Thus freed from this system which ensures that the copy is true to the original, they can easily borrow genetic material from other coronaviruses. In theory, a person with SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV, another highly pathogenic coronavirus discovered in 2012 in the Middle East, could hybridize this genetic material to create a new disease.

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