scholarly journals SARS-CoV-2 mutations among minks show reduced lethality and infectivity to humans

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0247626
Author(s):  
Tomokazu Konishi
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Sequencing Data ◽  
Human Virus ◽  
Smallpox Virus

SARS-CoV-2 infection in minks has become a serious problem, as the virus may mutate and reinfect humans; some countries have decided to cull minks. Here, the virus sequencing data in minks were analysed and compared to those of human-virus. Although the mink-virus maintained the characteristics of human-virus, some variants rapidly mutated, adapting to minks. Some mink-derived variants infected humans, which accounted for 40% of the total SARS-CoV-2 cases in the Netherlands. These variants appear to be less lethal and infective compared to those in humans. Variants that have mutated further among minks were not found in humans. Such mink-viruses might be suitable for vaccination for humans, such as in the case of the smallpox virus, which is less infective and toxic to humans.

scholarly journals SARS-CoV-2 mutations among minks show reduced lethality and infectivity to humans

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomokazu Konishi
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Sequencing Data ◽  
Human Virus ◽  
Smallpox Virus

AbstractSARS-CoV-2 infection in minks has become a serious problem, as the virus may mutate and reinfect humans; some countries have decided to cull minks. Here, the virus sequencing data in minks were analysed and compared to those of human-virus. Although the mink-virus maintained the characteristics of human-virus, some variants rapidly mutated, adapting to minks. Some mink-derived variants infected humans, which accounted for 40% of the total SARS-CoV-2 cases in the Netherlands. These variants appear to be less lethal and infective compared to those in humans. Variants that have mutated further among minks were not found in humans. Such mink-virus might be suitable for vaccination for humans, such as in the case of the smallpox virus, which is less infective and toxic to humans.

scholarly journals Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)/SARS-CoV-2: Hopefully, the Human-Virus Battle Ends Soon on a Positive Note

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Venkata Ramana Kandi
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
European Continent ◽  
Human Virus ◽  
Smallpox Virus ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Novel ◽  
Late 18Th Century ◽  
Spanish Flu

The emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases are not uncommon to humans. We have been seeing this, repeated many a time in the past, that the new/novel microbial species emerge and pose a potential threat to the whole of mankind. Among those infectious diseases which threatened mankind, the Smallpox virus appears to have had the greatest impact. Smallpox virus was suspected to be present on the earth since 10,000 B.C., but its presence and the effect on humans was established only in the late 18th century to the early 20th century when people suffered from its consequences. Most people (>75%) infected with smallpox died, leaving a sense of doom among humans. Later, or probably during the same time, there was the emergence of an infectious disease called “plague”, which swept across many countries and caused a lot of mortality. This disease was also called the black death, due to the nature of lesions caused and the thousands of people who were dying in very less time. We have also seen the emergence of a novel influenza virus, the Spanish flu (1918) which caused a severe pandemic. Interestingly, all these infectious diseases caused pandemics involving several countries, and causing increased mortality, especially in the European continent. In this editorial I discuss the significance of the most recent pandemic caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV2), also called Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19).

scholarly journals The SARS-CoV-2-like virus found in captive pangolins from Guangdong should be better sequenced

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Hassanin
Keyword(s):  
Poor Quality ◽  
Receptor Binding Domain ◽  
Sequencing Data ◽  
Human Virus ◽  
Sequencing Errors ◽  
Sequence Read Archive ◽  
Manis Javanica ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Genome Assemblies ◽  
Illumina Sequencing Data

Viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus responsible of the Covid-19 pandemic, were sequenced in several Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica) seized in the Guangdong and Guangxi provinces of China between 2017 and 20191-3. These viruses belong to two lineages: one from Guangdong (GD/P) and the other from Guangxi (GX/P). The GD/P viruses are particularly intriguing as the amino-acid sequence of the receptor binding domain of the spike protein is very similar to that of the human SARS-CoV-2 virus (97.4%)2. This characteristic suggests that GD/P viruses are capable of binding human ACE2 receptor and may therefore be able to mediate infection of human cells. Whereas all six GX/P genomes were deposited as annotated sequences in GenBank, none of the two GD/P genomes assembled in previous studies2,3 are currently available. To overcome this absence, I assembled these genomes from the Sequence Read Archive (SRA) data available for SARS-CoV-2-like viruses detected in five captive pangolins from Guangdong. I found the genome assemblies of GD/P virus of poor quality, having high levels of missing data. Additionally, unexpected reads in the Illumina sequencing data were identified. The GD/P2S dataset2 contains reads that are identical to SARS-CoV-2, suggesting either the coexistence of two SARS-CoV-2-like viruses in the same pangolin or contamination by the human virus. In the four other GD/P datasets1 many mitochondrial reads from pangolin were identified, as well as from three other species, namely, human, mouse and tiger. Importantly, I only identified three polymorphic nucleotide sites between the five GD/P sequences. Such low levels of polymorphism may reasonably be accounted for by sequencing errors alone, thus raising the possibility that the five pangolins seized in Guangdong in March 2019 were infected by the same virus strain, most probably during their captivity.

scholarly journals High SARS-CoV-2 attack rates following exposure during singing events in the Netherlands, September-October 2020

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita A. Shah ◽  
Florien Dusseldorp ◽  
Irene K. Veldhuijzen ◽  
Margreet J.M. te Wierik ◽  
Alvin Bartels ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Index Case ◽  
Sequencing Data ◽  
Airborne Transmission ◽  
Indirect Contact ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Respiratory Droplets ◽  
Droplet Transmission ◽  
Interpretation Of Results

AbstractPrevious reports indicate that there may be an increased risk of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission during singing events. We describe SARS-CoV-2 transmission in six singing events from September–October 2020, across the Netherlands, with attack rates from 25–74%. We investigated potential routes of SARS-CoV-2 transmission for each event. Events included 9–21 persons, aged 20–79 years. SARS-CoV-2 transmission likely took place during five out of six events; a possible index case could be identified in four out of five clusters. Limited sequencing data was available, hampering interpretation of results. Indirect contact and droplet transmission (<1.5m) may have caused some cases, but are unlikely to explain the high attack rates. The previously published AirCoV2 model indicated that airborne transmission (via infectious droplets/ aerosols over longer distances (>1.5m)) due to singing is possible in case of supershedder presence (≥1010 RNA copies/mL). Also, airflow expelling respiratory droplets over longer distances (>1.5m) may have influenced transmission. In conclusion, a combination of transmission routes probably caused these five clusters. Proportions attributable to each route cannot be deduced. It is possible that airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 due to singing (partly) led to the high attack rates observed in these clusters.

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