Significant new SARS-CoV-2 variants may emerge during chronic infection

SARS-CoV-2 mutations similar to those in the B1. UK variant could arise in cases of chronic COVID-19 infection, where treatment over an extended period provides the virus multiple opportunities to evolve, finds research co-led by UCL. Writing in Nature , a team led comprised of researchers from UCL and Cambridge reported how they were able to observe SARS-CoV-2 mutating in the case of an immunocompromised patient treated with convalescent plasma. After documenting the mutations arising in the patient, careful tracking of the global prevelance of other mutations led to the discovery of what was recently identified as the new variant that led to the UK being forced once again into strict lockdown, though there is no suggestion that the variant originated from this patient. Dr Steven Kemp (UCL Infection & Immunity), who first noticed a series of linked mutations occurring in a national database of SARS-CoV-2 sequences reported his findings to Professor Ravi Gupta (University of Cambridge), who then led a team of UCL and Cambridge Scientists to create a synthetic version of the virus Spike protein in the lab. The team showed that specific changes to its genetic code - the mutation seen in the B1.1.7 variant - made the virus twice as infectious on cells as the more common strain. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is a betacoronavirus.