Researchers at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine have discovered a new strain of the COVID-19 virus.
Headlines were made in December when a novel, much more transmittable form of COVID was discovered in the U.K., prompting many European nations to shut their borders to U.K. residents and those who had traveled there.
The strain found in Columbus “carries a mutation identical to the U.K. strain, but it likely arose in a virus strain already present in the United States,” reads a release from the Wexner Medical Center. “The researchers also report the evolution of another U.S. strain that acquired three other gene mutations not previously seen together in SARS-CoV2.”
The Wexner Center has been actively sequencing the virus genome in COVID patients since the start of the pandemic in March and recently discovered this U.K. evolution in one Ohio patient. They say they do not yet know how prevalent that mutation is in the population but “the evolving strain with the three new mutations has become the dominant virus in Columbus during a three week period in late December 2020 and January,” reads a release.
“This new Columbus strain (COH.20G/501Y) has the same genetic backbone as earlier cases we’ve studied, but these three mutations represent a significant evolution,” says study leader Dr. Dan Jones, vice chair of the division of molecular pathology. “We know this shift didn’t come from the U.K. or South African branches of the virus.”
The medical center says both the U.K. strain and the Columbus strain affect the spikes on the COVID virus, making it likely more infectious.
“The big question is whether these mutations will render vaccines and current therapeutic approaches less effective,” says Peter Mohler, a co-author of the study and chief scientific officer at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and vice dean for research at the College of Medicine. “At this point, we have no data to believe that these mutations will have any impact on the effectiveness of vaccines now in use.”
The Wexner Center also warns people not to freak out about the new COVID(s):
“It’s important that we don’t overreact to this new variant until we obtain additional data,” Mohler says. “We need to understand the impact of mutations on transmission of the virus, the prevalence of the strain in the population and whether it has a more significant impact on human health.”
Viruses frequently adapt and change — that’s why there’s a new annual flu shot, to ideally prevent infection from that year’s strain of influenza. This new Columbus COVID variant, COH.20G/501Y, suggests that such viral mutations may be occurring across the globe, not just in the U.K. and Ohio.
“Viruses naturally mutate and evolve over time, but the changes seen in the last two months have been more prominent than in the first months of the pandemic,” says Jones.
The Wexner Center and Jones’ team will continue to monitor the genome of infected COVID patients and any potential changes.
This article appears in Jan 1-31, 2021.