India's Co.ro.na.virus Mutation Could Render All Research On Vaccines Useless, Report

According to researchers based in Taiwan and Australia, a train of Coronavirus found in India could render all research on vaccines useless.

The scientists announced that the virus’s spike protein has changed so that the Coronavirus can bind with certain cells in human bodies. Researchers have learned a lot about the receptor and are trying to find antibodies to target it. However, the mutation isolated in India could ruin everything.

As stated by Wei-Lung, a researcher at Taiwan’s National Changhua University of Education, and collaborators from Australia’s Murdoch University, the strain found in India was the first sign of a major mutation.

This study suggests that mutation that can change epitope – something antibodies attach to – can happen at any time. If it does, all vaccine research will become useless.

The strain was taken from a patient in Kerala in January and has been presented to the National Institute of Virology. However, it was not until two months later that a full genome sequence was released.

The concern of new mutations is growing among scientists. They fear that thousands of samples and sequences they are having now only present the tip of the iceberg. And a wide variety means that new strains call for new vaccines.

Despite facing lots of setbacks, scientists have been racing against the clock to find vaccines for the novel Coronavirus that has infected 1.9 million people and taken the lives of 120,450, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

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