Friday, May 1, 2020

Coronavirus’ slow mutation could be good news for vaccine makers

Malaysiakini

CORONAVIRUS | The relatively slow mutation rate of the virus that causes Covid-19 could be good news for the various vaccines that are currently in development.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus - which causes the Covid-19 disease - uses a single strand of RNA to encode its genetic information, instead of DNA that is more stable and less prone to mutation.
Mutations can occur when the virus makes mistakes in making copies of its RNA, which is about 30,000 ‘letters’ long.
Despite this, the New York Times reported that SARS-CoV-2 is mutating slower than other RNA viruses because it has proteins that can act as ‘proofreaders’ to fix some of these mistakes.
“Each month, a lineage of coronaviruses might acquire only two single-letter mutations.
“In the future, the coronavirus may pick up some mutations that help it evade our immune systems. But the slow mutation rate of the coronavirus means that these changes will emerge over the course of years.
“That bodes well for vaccines currently in development for Covid-19. If people get vaccinated in 2021 against the new coronavirus, they may well enjoy a protection that lasts for years,” the New York Times reported in an explainer on how the virus mutates, and how researchers track such mutations to trace its spread across the world.
It said most mutations are known as ‘silent mutations’, meaning that it won’t change the amino acid it encodes for.
Non-silent mutations can alter a protein’s amino acid sequence, but changing a single amino acid in a protein usually has no effect on how the protein functions.
“Over time, viruses can evolve into new strains - in other words, viral lineages that are significantly different from each other.
“Since January, researchers have sequenced many thousands of SARS-CoV-2 genomes and tracked all the mutations that have arisen.
“So far, they haven’t found compelling evidence that the mutations have had a significant change in how the virus affects us,” the report said.
Family tree
Nevertheless, by comparing genetic sequences of different samples of the virus, scientists were able to reconstruct a family tree of the virus and trace its spread.
They found that the genomes of several samples from the initial outbreak in Wuhan have only a few mutations, which suggested that the virus has a recent common ancestor.
“Viruses accumulate new mutations at a roughly regular rate, so the scientists were able to estimate that the origin of the outbreak was in China sometime around November 2019,” the report said.
Last month, South China Morning Post reported that the first known Covid-19 case could be a 55-year old man in Hubei on Nov 17 last year, though Chinese doctors only realised they were dealing with a new disease on Dec 27.
For the record, the new disease was reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) country office in China on Dec 31, 2019, though its cause was still unknown at the time.
The virus was only identified on Jan 7, 2020, and the first genetic sequence of the virus was published on Jan 12 to enable other countries, including Malaysia, to develop their own diagnostic tests for the virus.
According to the journal Nature, there are now more than 90 vaccine candidates in development that target the SARS-CoV-2 virus, though only a handful are likely to make the cut.
Some of these candidates use relatively new techniques that could expedite the development and manufacture of the vaccine in hopes of having it ready in 18 months, but these techniques have never been used in a vaccine approved for human-use before. - Mkini

4 comments:

  1. I am really happy that i have been cured from (HERPES SIMPLEX VIRUS) with the herbal medicine of Dr Aire , i have been suffering from this disease for the past 3 years and 4 mouth without solution until i came across the email of this doctor who have cure so many people with his herbal medicine, i also choose to give him a chance to help me and my husband, he told me what to do and i kindly did it, and he gave us his herbal medicine and direct me on how to use it, i also follow his instructions for use and he ask us to go for a check up after 1 week and 5days which i did, to my greatest surprise our result came out as negative, we are really happy that there is someone like this doctor who is ready to help anytime any day. To all the readers and viewers that is doubting this testimony stop doubting it and contact this doctor if you really have one and see if he will not actually help you. i am not a stupid woman that i will come out to the public and start saying what someone have not done for me and i know that there are some people out there who are really suffering and hurting their family just because of these diseases so you can to mail him on drairehome@gmail.com or WHATSAPP +2347036740271 he also told me that he has cure for these diseases listed below .
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  2. I WANT TO USE THIS OPPORTUNITY  TO SAY A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO DR MUSTAFAMy name is Anita Jackson i am so happy to share this testimony on how Dr.Mustafa  healed me from genital herpes. i was detected with genital herpes around 4th may 2015, and ever since that day i have been looking for a way to end this virus from my body, but the more i try, the more i was told there was no solution. Few months ago i saw a testimony of some people on how Dr.Mustafa  cure them from HERPES VIRUS, i also heard about it on media when a young lady also gave her testimony saying Dr.Mustafa cured her oral herpes. I was left with no other hope than to contact Dr.Mustafa and give him a try. I contacted him  and told him what i was going through. He said he could heal me, that he is going to send me a herbal medicine which i should pay for.I did as he requested, and He sent the medicine as he promised. I took this herbal medicine for 1 week and it was obvious that his medicine was for real, because the herpes started clearing from my body. Later at  the 2 week, i went for medical check up and i was surprised when my doctor told me he found no trace of the virus in me again. At first when he told me, i was so shock and still did not believed until he gave me my test result. to make my story short i am now free from herpes, after many months of sorrow and my sickness is gone, i thank God for leading me to this man, and i want to also lead you to him if you have any illness like HIV, HPV, hepatitis B, asthma, cancer, Diabetes, COLD SCORE,TOOTH ACHE  FIBROID and AUTISM.  You can email him on Herbalremedies21@gmail.com or whats-app  him on +2347010821863.      

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  3. Hello everybody I am here to show appreciation to Dr Robinson the great herbal doctor that help me got rid of my herpes virus which i contacted, And after so many search looking for medical cure to my illness which no medical doctor had cure to with no choice I was forced to share my pain to a friend who had bell's palsy and she directed me to this amazing herbal doctor with great powers who got her total cure and she assured me that Dr Robinson will help me get total rid of my herpes virus and f with the help of his herbal herbal cure and so surprising after taking his herbal treatment i  was totally cure and for 2 months now i have not experienced any symptoms i am so happy today to tell you all my story though it's cost me some money but I guarantee you he is one man you can contact for help and he will help you with his great powers. So if you have been looking for cure to whatever illness you are suffering from contact Dr Robinson by visiting his drrobinsonspellhome@gmail.com or call  and you will be glad you came to him for help for I strongly believe Dr Robinson will never fail in his herbal solutions . 

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  4. Hello everybody I am here to show appreciation to Dr Robinson the great herbal doctor that help me got rid of my herpes virus which i contacted, And after so many search looking for medical cure to my illness which no medical doctor had cure to with no choice I was forced to share my pain to a friend who had bell's palsy and she directed me to this amazing herbal doctor with great powers who got her total cure and she assured me that Dr Robinson will help me get total rid of my herpes virus and f with the help of his herbal herbal cure and so surprising after taking his herbal treatment i  was totally cure and for 2 months now i have not experienced any symptoms i am so happy today to tell you all my story though it's cost me some money but I guarantee you he is one man you can contact for help and he will help you with his great powers. So if you have been looking for cure to whatever illness you are suffering from contact Dr Robinson by visiting his drrobinsonspellhome@gmail.com or call  and you will be glad you came to him for help for I strongly believe Dr Robinson will never fail in his herbal solutions . 

    ReplyDelete

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