Its operation continues at a steady pace coronavirus, at a time when mutations are prevalent almost all over the planet. In fact, recently the WHO characterized the new mutation M, variant of interest.
So far, several mutations have been identified, exhausting half the letters of the Greek alphabet. Only four have caused concern in the WHO, describing them as variants of concern for the coronavirus.
Recently a new executive was added to the list of variant of interest the executive: M.
Although information and data on this strain are limited, two specialist virologists were asked about the characteristics of the new strain.
A recent article on WebMD mentions the characteristics of the new M. mutation. The literature is reviewed by the Professors of Medicine of EKPA Dimitrios Paraskevi (Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine) and Thanos Dimopoulos (Rector of EKPA).
Experts included Jesse Erasmus, PhD, Assistant Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, and Pedro Piedra, MD, Professor of Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA.
Question: M strains were first spotted in Colombia in January 2021, and since there are about 8 to 9 months, why did they catch the eye only recently?
Piedra: As with any new strain as soon as it is identified or begins to spread to different parts of the country, it is a cause for concern. Strain M has started to be detected not in very high numbers or in high percentages, but in different areas throughout the United States and this makes it quite interesting.
Question: According to the CDC, which monitors the percentages of executives in the US, Delta still dominates, while the M strain represents only 0.1% of the cases. Any strain can be described as a strain of particular interest, but why do you think M is the focus of interest?
Erasmus: What is most likely to be of great interest is strain M, which includes mutations found in the Delta, but also mutations from Alpha or B.1.1.7, which were also highly contagious. There is an impression that if mutations from different strains are combined, a “super-mutated virus” will emerge that is going to cause a significant problem. This is not necessarily the case. I would say at the moment that M is a strain of interest.
Question: On the other hand, strain M has been identified in more than 40 countries and 49 states – all except Nebraska. Is this a data on infectivity?
Erasmus: That will be seen in the future. Different strains can arise through two different pathways. In the first case, all transmissions come from a common source of a new strain that is transmitted around the world – and thus constitutes a single emerging event. In my opinion this scenario is not very likely.
The other scenario is the “convergent evolution”, ie when an executive appears in multiple, separate circumstances. This is because certain mutations give the virus some advantage. There may be multiple pathways through which a virus can reach this combination of mutations, which may be more likely. Also, if it has an increased rate of transmission, we would expect to observe a higher rate of cases compared to the Delta strain.
According to estimates by the EKPA professors who supervised the literature review, regarding the question of how the spread of the M strain in different US states has arisen, the most probable scenario is to involve successive transmissions from a common source and not to is the result of a convergent evolution. Data from previous studies on how SARS-CoV-2 is spread converge in favor of this hypothesis.
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