New Mutation Indicates That Coronavirus Could Be Weakening
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A study has found that a new mutation in the Coronavirus suggests that the virus could be weakening.
According to FOX News, Dr. Efren Lim, an assistant professor at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute, and his team have been studying the genetic coding of the virus with a new technology that helps researchers determine how the virus is spreading, mutating and changing over time.
The team took 382 nasal swab samples from infected patients and discovered a SARS-CoV-2 mutation that had never been found before, where 81 of the letters have disappeared and had been permanently deleted from the genome.
“One of the reasons why this mutation is of interest is because it mirrors a large deletion that arose in the 2003 SARS outbreak,” Lim said. “Where the deletion occurs in the genome is pretty meaningful because it’s a known immune protein which means it counteracts the host’s antiviral response.”
A weakened virus could become a problem because it would cause less severe symptoms, thus more people could be infected without knowing they are even sick.
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