Making Sense of Mutation: What D614G Means for the COVID-19 Pandemic Remains Unclear
Oleh: Infomedikini
Pada: 27/10/20
Imej sekamtik bagi DNA
Introduction
After the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in China in late 2019, and the rapid expansion of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, questions about viral evolution have come tumbling after. Did SARS-CoV-2 evolve to become better adapted to humans? More infectious or transmissible? More deadly?
Will D614G Make Infections More Severe?
So far there is no evidence that infection with SARS-CoV-2 containing the G614 variant will lead to more severe disease. By examining clinical data from 999 COVID-19 cases diagnosed in the United Kingdom, Korber et al. (2020) found that patients infected with viruses containing G614 had higher levels of virus RNA, but they did not find a difference in hospitalization outcomes. These clinical observations are supported by two independent studies: 175 COVID-19 patients from Seattle, WA (Wagner et al., 2020) and 88 COVID-19 patients from Chicago, IL (Lorenzo-Redondo et al., 2020) in the United States.
Viral load and disease severity are not always correlated, particularly when viral RNA is used to estimate virus titer. The current evidence suggests that D614G is less important for COVID-19 than other risk factors, such as age or comorbidities.
Conclusion
Although there has already been much breathless commentary on what this mutation means for the COVID-19 pandemic, the global expansion of G614 whether through natural selection or chance means that this variant now is the pandemic. As a result, its properties matter. It is clear from the in vitro and clinical data that G614 has a distinct phenotype, but whether this is the result of bonafide adaptation to human ACE2, whether it increases transmissibility, or will have a notable effect is not clear. The work by Korber et al. (2020) provides an early base for more extensive epidemiological, in vivo experimental, and diverse clinical investigations to fill in the many critical gaps in how D614G impacts the pandemic.
Last-Modified: Teusday, 2 March 2021 15:56:34 GMT
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