The genetic variation of the novel coronavirus that dominates the world today infects human cells more readily than the original that emerged in China, a new study says.
MESSAGE. People wearing protective mask walks in front of a tarpaulin with an image of a surgical mask with inspirational message at a mall in Makati City on June 2, 2020. Photo by Dante Diosina Jr/Rappler
"I think the data is showing that there is a single mutation that actually makes the virus be able to replicate better, and maybe have high viral loads," Anthony Fauci, the United States's top infectious disease specialist, who wasn't involved in the research, commented to Journal of the American Medical Association.
They found that the current variant, called"D614G," makes a small but potent change in the"spike" protein that protrudes from the surface of the virus, which it uses to invade and infect human cells. Laboratory experiments meanwhile showed that the variant is 3 to 6 times more capable of infecting human cells.
At any rate, said Nathan Grubaugh, a virologist at the Yale School of Public Health who was not part of the research: The expansion of the variant"whether through natural selection or chance, means that this variant now is the pandemic."
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