France has found 12 cases of new mutant strainS IHU to worry about?

An untrialed research paper recently published by French researchers has become the focus of international media attention. Researchers at the Mediterranean Institute for the Medical and Pedagogical Institute of Infectious Diseases in Marseille, France (IHU Méditerranée Infection) detected a new type of covid-19 strain, B.1.640.2, which is also named the "IHU" strain.

The news was first announced on social media by the IHU Institute in Marseille on December 9. At the end of December, the research team published a preprinted article in medRxiv detailing the IHU strain, which carries 46 gene mutations and 37 gene deletions, 23 of which are located in spike proteins.

The new coronavirus variant was first identified in southern France, and the researchers speculate that it may be a new variant originating in Cameroon that contains two key gene mutations, N501Y and E484K, in the spike protein.

The first financial reporter noted that the Institution of Marseille IHU, which published the paper, was involved in the research of the new crown virus at the beginning of the new crown outbreak, and one of the authors of the above paper, Professor Didier Raoult, director of the IHU Institute in Marseille, also caused a huge controversy because of the advocacy of the use of hydroxychloroquine drugs to treat the new crown at the beginning of the new crown outbreak.

A virologist told the first financial reporter that the previously discovered new crown Beta strain also contains the above two gene mutations. The N501Y mutation may increase the infectivity of the virus, while the E484K mutation may produce immune evasion.

But in terms of the number of genetic mutations, the IHU strain carries more mutations, which is also of concern to the researchers. The above-mentioned virologist told the first financial reporter: "It is difficult to judge the characteristics, influences and dangers of this mutant strain as far as the currently known information is concerned, and the factors that determine whether a virus can be circulated are very complicated, but the monitoring of the mutant strain should continue to be strengthened." ”

According to reports, the latest detection of this B.1.640.2 variant in France is a subphyte of the B.1.640 variant. The B.1.640 variant was discovered in France as early as the end of October last year. French public health agency Santé Publique France wrote in a december 15 report that since December 8, 2021, B. 1.640 has diverged into two subphylaxes: B.1.640.1 and B.1.640.2. The B.1.640.2 variant was discovered in a cluster in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region (PACA) in southern France at the end of November 2021.

Since 22 November, the B.1.640 strain has been classified by the World Health Organization as a "strain under surveillance" (VUM). VUM means that despite the mutation, the virus currently lacks virological, epidemiological, or clinical evidence to support the impact on public health.

Current cases of infection with this variant are still rare. In the study of the IHU in Marseille, the researchers said that 12 patients carrying this B.1.640.2 variant have been identified. They also said that based on these 12 cases alone is not enough to speculate on the virology, epidemiology or clinical characteristics of the IHU variant.

Globally, the epidemiological testing platform does not distinguish between the two subphylaxis. According to the latest data from the GISAID Epidemiological Surveillance Platform, about a hundred cases of infection with new variants have been detected worldwide, most of them in France.

While some scientists have expressed concern about the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the PACA region of southern France in recent days, most researchers believe that the current level of transmission of the variant is very low and cannot compete with the Delta variant that is driving france's fifth wave of outbreaks or the highly contagious Amiqueron variant.

The French public health agency is intensifying epidemiological surveillance and in vitro studies of the new variant to assess the characteristics of the strain and its impact on public health.

Dr Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, believes there is no need to worry too much about the variant at this point. "The gene sequence about B.1.640.2 was uploaded to the GISID website by researchers in Paris on November 4, while the Omiljung gene sequence upload was uploaded three weeks later, on November 22, by researchers in Hong Kong, China," he said on social media. ”

Picock further said that this shows that the variant has been transmitting for a relatively long time, and judging by its infectivity, it is clear that it has not prevailed. In addition, B.1.640.1 is more widely spread in Europe than the B.1.640.2 strain and should be given more attention, although the B.1.640.1 gene sequence does not contain the E484K mutation, meaning that the strain is not easy to evade immunity.