Covid-19 has now claimed more than 3.2 million lives worldwide, far exceeding the number of deaths from the previous coronavirus seen over the past 20 years. Epidemiologists immediately suggested an animal origin for SARS-CoV-2, but little was known scientifically about the possible viral mutations until the virus adapted to humans.
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This study is published in Cell Journal, He managed to identify the “Spike” protein region. he’s the only one Allows the virus to attach to cells (Pneumonia in particular), showed a strong signal of ‘positive selection found around changes in the receptor binding domain’ for the spike protein mentioned above. It is clear that they identified the mutated genetic sequence and allowed it to spread between humans very quickly.
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“Within this region, located in the recipient domain (RBD), we identified a fixed non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (PNG) in all sequenced SARS-CoV-2 genomes to date,” the study outlines. But this modification was present in all human SARS-CoV-2 sequences, but not in closely related viruses from bats and pangolins.
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To summarize, studies show that this sequence enhances viral replication in human lung cells compared to the ‘ancestral’ variant. The effect of this mutation is 20 times greater than that of the traditional coronavirus mutation. Therefore, the scientists’ findings suggest that this mutation may have contributed to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 from “animal reservoirs” but also allowed for greater human-to-human transmission.
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