A new type of code 19 is currently the most common in the world and has spread much faster than the original virus.
The claim was made by a British medical expert.
Nick Luman, a professor at the University of Birmingham, said the corona virus, dubbed D614G, had a significant effect on code 19 cases worldwide.
Professor Nick Luman is also part of the Code 19 Genomics Consortium working on the virus.
While it is not uncommon for a new strain of the virus to increase the number of deaths or hospital stays, it did contribute to the widespread spread of the virus worldwide.
According to Professor Nick Luman, the revelations came after scientists analyzed more than 40,000 genomes of the virus in the UK and discovered that D614G has the potential to spread rapidly in humans.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4, he said: “It is present in the spike protein, which is the most important source of corona virus entering human cells and we have seen this type of virus in the UK and around the world. It is the most widespread.
He added: “This new type of prediction was first made in computer modeling, which looked at the structure of proteins and their ability to enter cells and proved that viruses can attach to cells very quickly and their systems. Has the potential to deactivate. ”
Professor Nick said he did not think the new virus would affect the development of a vaccine to prevent code-19.
“It’s the most common type in the world, with 75% of cases. The original virus that spread in Wuhan was D-type, but G-type is now spreading around the world, including in the UK,” he said.
However, he dismissed fears that the new strain of the virus meant the epidemic had entered a new phase.
He said that the effects of this new type are not more visible than spreading.
“The impact is small, we think, but we weren’t completely confident, but we did try to find out through testing what happened in the UK when the G-type began to spread rapidly and He left behind the D-type.
“We have not seen significant effects of this new type in terms of patient survival and hospital stay, we do not think that this type has changed the structure of the disease, its effect is visible in the spread,” he said. Is’.
Earlier this month, a medical study in the United States found the same thing.
“This new strain is now a new form of the virus,” said Erica Oleiman Shipery, a researcher at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology.
The research, published in the journal Cell, was based on the research team’s previous work, which was recently published in Preprint Server, which, after analyzing genetic sequences, indicated that a new species was ahead of others. Is.
Now the research team not only examined further genetic sequences, but also experimented on cells in humans, animals, and laboratories, proving that the new strain of corona virus is more common and more contagious than other strains.
According to Erica Oliman, we now know how much the new virus has spread, but at first glance it doesn’t look much worse.
This new strain of the virus has affected the spike protein, the structure of the virus that affects cells, and researchers are now examining what effect this new strain may have on the vaccine in terms of controlling it.
Most of the vaccines currently being developed target spike proteins, but they are based on older strains of the virus.
The new study confirms earlier work that the new strain of the virus is more common and researchers have dubbed it the G614, and the researchers found that the strain has replaced the first version D614 in the United States and Europe. Is.
The researchers said that global tracking data showed that the G614 spread more rapidly, meaning that the virus had become more contagious than before, but we did not see any evidence that this type of disease affects the severity of the disease. Has happened
“This is probably good news,” said Lawrence Young, a professor at the University of Warwick in the UK who was not part of the study. “Recent research suggests that although the G614 is more contagious, it is not more lethal.” Given the spread of the corona virus, there is hope that the virus may become less lethal.
The research team collected samples of sequences of virus genomes in patients across Europe and the United States and compared them with pre-existing sequences, which helped them map the spread of both types.
The researchers said that by March 1, 2020, the G614 would not be out of Europe, but by the end of March it had reached the world.
He said that the spread of this new type continued even after the lockdown and it became the dominant type.
The researchers said that this new type of respiratory system spreads many times faster in the upper respiratory tract, ie nose, nostrils and throat and that is why it is transmitted very quickly from an infected person to a healthy person.
But he found in tests on 1,000 patients being treated in the UK that those infected with the new strain had a higher severity of the disease than those infected with the original virus.