Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative virus of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has been identified in China in late December 2019. SARS-CoV-2 is an enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA betacoronavirus of the Coronaviridae family. Coronaviruses have genetic proofreading mechanism that corrects copying mistakes and thus SARS-CoV-2 genetic diversity is extremely low. Despite lower mutation rate of the virus, researchers have detected a total of 12,706 mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome, the majority of which were single nucleotide polymorphisms. Sequencing data revealed that the SARS-CoV-2 accumulates two-single nucleotide mutations per month in its genome. Recently, an amino acid aspartate (D) to glycine (G) (D614G) mutation due to an adenine to guanine nucleotide change at position 23,403 at the 614th amino-acid position of the spike protein in the original reference genotype has been identified. The SARS-CoV-2 viruses that carry the spike protein D614G mutation have become dominant variant around the world. The D614G mutation has been found to be associated with 3 other mutations in the spike protein. Clinical and pseudovirus experimental studies have demonstrated that the spike protein D614G mutation alters the virus phenotype. However, the impact of the mutation on the rate of transmission between people, disease severity and the vaccine and therapeutic development remains unclear. Three variants of SARS-CoV-2 have recently been identified. They are B.1.1.7 (UK) variant, B.1.351 (N501Y.V2, South African) variant and B.1.1.28 (Brazilian) variant. Epidemiological data suggest that they have a higher transmissibility than the original variant. There are reports that some vaccines are less efficacious against the B.1.351 variant. This review article discusses the effects of novel mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome on transmission, clinical outcomes and vaccine development.
Highlights
Severe acute respiratory coronavirus syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is the causative virus of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is an enveloped, positive—sense, single—stranded RNA virus which belongs to the Coronaviridae family (1, 2)
Considering the findings presented by previous studies Grubaugh et al proposed that the D614G mutation don’t have a major impact on the efficacy of vaccines currently in the pipeline (14)
SARS-CoV-2 is not highly mutable, studies showed that variants in the SARS-CoV-2 genome may arise rapidly and may have effects on the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
Reviewed by: Rasmi Nair, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States. Sequencing data revealed that the SARS-CoV-2 accumulates two-single nucleotide mutations per month in its genome. An amino acid aspartate (D) to glycine (G) (D614G) mutation due to an adenine to guanine nucleotide change at position 23,403 at the 614th amino-acid position of the spike protein in the original reference genotype has been identified. The SARS-CoV-2 viruses that carry the spike protein D614G mutation have become dominant variant around the world. The impact of the mutation on the rate of transmission between people, disease severity and the vaccine and therapeutic development remains unclear. This review article discusses the effects of novel mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome on transmission, clinical outcomes and vaccine development
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