Why Major Immune Escape Is A Cause Of Concern In Bengal's Covid Variant? Know Its Impact

As per the initial research, this variant is predominantly found in West Bengal and also detected in samples from Delhi and Maharashtra. The presence of E484K mutation in the variant has raised concerns among the scientific community.

The spiralling Covid-19 cases have kept the country at the edge with medical facilities crumbling each day in several parts of the country. Since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2019, several other mutations of the original SARS-CoV-2 initially found in China, have been identified in different parts of the world.

The Covid Indian variant B.1.617 emerging in Maharashtra's Vidarbha, Nagpur, Amravati, and other regions got the global attention of researchers after the so-called ‘double mutant’ accounted for 80 percent of all analyzed genome sequences of mutant variants sent by India to the global repository GISAID. Also Read: Covid-19 Second Wave: Indian Variant Emerging From Parts Of Maharashtra Becomes Focus Of Global Research

Now, another variant referred to as B.1.618 emerging in West Bengal has become a cause of concern. As per the initial research, this variant is predominantly found in West Bengal and also detected in samples from Delhi and Maharashtra. The presence of E484K mutation in the variant has raised concerns among the scientific community.

Is Bengal variant ‘triple mutant’?

Triple mutant is basically a variant that has three different strains combined together to form a new variant. It is important to note that one of the variants in triple mutation is E484K, also identified as a “major immune escape variant.”

The B.1.618 variant found in Bengal has been characterized by a distinct set of genetic variants including E484K.  Immune escape variants are those mutations that help the variant to escape the immune system and possibly result in compromising vaccine efficacy.

According to Vinod Scaria, a scientist at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) in New Delhi, B.1.618 - a new lineage of SARS-CoV-2 predominantly found in India and characterized by a distinct set of genetic variants including E484K, a major immune escape variant. The mutant can escape immunity even if a person has contracted the virus before and has the ability to produce antibodies against it.

On the Twitter post, Scaria shared in detail about the strain. As of now, only preliminary research has been conducted on this variant of the novel coronavirus.

Scaria also shared a tweet saying that calling B.1.617 and B.1.618 as the double and triple variants would indeed be the unambiguous way. He went to tweet a biologist Divya Tej Sowpati's post explains the difference.

While Penny Moore, associate professor at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa, also termed the mutation "alarming” saying it is now a part of the triple mutant strain found in India. 

According to the data submitted from India to the global repository, GISAID shows B.1.618, at 12 per cent, is the third most common variant sequenced in the last 60 days.

 What is the impact of the ‘Bengal variant’?

As per the Scaria’s Twitter thread, E484K can escape multiple mAbs as well as panels of convalescent plasma, meaning the infection through this variant makes plasma therapy, or plasma taken from recovered Covid-19 patients and given to those who are infected with Covid-19, as redundant as an investigational treatment.

However, he mentioned that there is no conclusive evidence that the lineage drives the epidemic in West Bengal, apart from the fact that the nos and proportions have been significantly increasing in recent months. More focused epidemiological investigations would address these questions, he added.

India surpassed the US and Brazil to emerge as the country with the highest number of positive cases this month, around 3,32,730 new cases and 2,263 deaths were reported on Friday.