Chinese scientists identify 2 strains of the coronavirus, indicating it's already mutated

[MelissaB]

Chinese scientists identify two strains of the coronavirus, indicating it’s already mutated at least once

Link to tweet

Chinese scientists identify two strains of the coronavirus, indicating it’s already mutated at least once

Researchers in China have found that two different types of the new coronavirus could be causing infections worldwide.

In a preliminary study published Tuesday, scientists at Peking University’s School of Life Sciences and the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai found that a more aggressive type of the new coronavirus had accounted for roughly 70% of analyzed strains, while 30% had been linked to a less aggressive type.

The more aggressive type of virus was found to be prevalent in the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan — the Chinese city where COVID-19 was first detected late last year.

But the frequency of this type of virus has since decreased from early January.

More: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/04/coronavirus-chinese-scientists-identify-two-types-covid-19.html?__source=sharebar|twitter&par=sharebar

From The Telegraph:

Coronavirus has mutated into more aggressive disease, say scientists

Coronavirus has evolved into two major lineages and it is possible to be infected with both, a new study shows


Coronavirus has mutated into two strains, one which appears to be far more aggressive, scientists have said, in a discovery which could hinder attempts to develop a vaccine.

Researchers at Peking University's School of Life Sciences and the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, discovered the virus has evolved into two major lineages - dubbed ‘L’ and ‘S’ types.

The older ‘S-type’ appears to be milder and less infectious, while the ‘L-type’ which emerged later, spreads quickly and currently accounts for around 70 per cent of cases.

Genetic analysis of a man in the US who tested positive on January 21, also showed it is possible to be infected with both types.

More: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2020/03/04/coronavirus-has-mutated-aggressive-disease-say-scientists/?utm_content=telegraph&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1583342350

[MelissaB]

1. The Telegraph: There are now two types of coronavirus. One is more aggressive

There are now two types of coronavirus. One is more aggressive

Link to tweet

Coronavirus has mutated into more aggressive disease, say scientists

Coronavirus has evolved into two major lineages and it is possible to be infected with both, a new study shows


Coronavirus has mutated into two strains, one which appears to be far more aggressive, scientists have said, in a discovery which could hinder attempts to develop a vaccine.

Researchers at Peking University's School of Life Sciences and the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai, discovered the virus has evolved into two major lineages - dubbed ‘L’ and ‘S’ types.

The older ‘S-type’ appears to be milder and less infectious, while the ‘L-type’ which emerged later, spreads quickly and currently accounts for around 70 per cent of cases.

Genetic analysis of a man in the US who tested positive on January 21, also showed it is possible to be infected with both types.

More: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2020/03/04/coronavirus-has-mutated-aggressive-disease-say-scientists/?utm_content=telegraph&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1583342350

[jpak]

2. Good News!

[rzemanfl]

3. ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[USALiberal]

7. Why? nt

[jpak]

8. "But the frequency of this type of virus has since decreased from early January."

n/t

[roamer65]

4. The 64k question...does the weaker strain generate immunity to the stronger one?

Cowpox was used to generate immunity to smallpox.

[MelissaB]

5. One of the articles above says you can be infected by both...

[jpak]

10. This may explain why people that recovered from the early virus were re-infected

[roamer65]

13. Very possible.

The weaker strain just may generate immunity. Be interesting to see if the immunity transfers to SARS and MERS.

[Baitball Blogger]

9. Maybe this is why it appears that some people are getting it twice?

[herding cats]

11. A bit more on this paper.

A recent paper claims that #SARSCoV2 split into L and S strains with L leading to more severe #COVID19. This is most likely a statistical artifact due to intense early sampling of the "L" group in Wuhan, resulting in higher apparent CFR in this group. [1/3]

#SARSCoV2 genomes are sampled extremely heterogeneously in time and space. Rapidly growing local outbreaks get sampled intensively and result in overrepresentation of some variants. This happened early on around the Wuhan Seafood market and now with the Italian outbreak. [2/3]

Any statistical inference needs to account for such sampling biases and just taking values at face values will result in wrong, misleading, or downright dangerous inferences. [3/3]

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1235217967727681536.html

About the author:

Richard Neher
i am a biologist/physicist at the @biozentrum in Basel trying to understand how microbes evolve. views are my own, RT!=endorsement.

[Nonhlanhla]

12. The articles are contradictory

One says the more aggressive strain has decreased; the other says the opposite.

[gristy]

15. Yes, I also noticed that in the posted snippets...

Had to read and compare them a couple times...

[dalton99a]

16. The CNBC article is correct

The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic started in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and has since impacted a large portion of China and raised major global concern. Herein, we investigated the extent of molecular divergence between SARS-CoV-2 and other related coronaviruses. Although we found only 4% variability in genomic nucleotides between SARS-CoV-2 and a bat SARS-related coronavirus (SARSr-CoV; RaTG13), the difference at neutral sites was 17%, suggesting the divergence between the two viruses is much larger than previously estimated. Our results suggest that the development of new variations in functional sites in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike seen in SARS-CoV-2 and viruses from pangolin SARSr-CoVs are likely caused by mutations and natural selection besides recombination. Population genetic analyses of 103 SARS-CoV-2 genomes indicated that these viruses evolved into two major types (designated L and S), that are well defined by two different SNPs that show nearly complete linkage across the viral strains sequenced to date. Although the L type (∼70%) is more prevalent than the S type (∼30%), the S type was found to be the ancestral version. Whereas the L type was more prevalent in the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan, the frequency of the L type decreased after early January 2020. Human intervention may have placed more severe selective pressure on the L type, which might be more aggressive and spread more quickly. On the other hand, the S type, which is evolutionarily older and less aggressive, might have increased in relative frequency due to relatively weaker selective pressure. These findings strongly support an urgent need for further immediate, comprehensive studies that combine genomic data, epidemiological data, and chart records of the clinical symptoms of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

https://academic.oup.com/nsr/advance-article/doi/10.1093/nsr/nwaa036/5775463

[wackadoo wabbit]

17. Exactly! I was waiting for someone to point this out (n/t)

[Nonhlanhla]

14. Here's another article

Looks cautiously hopeful. Most cases have been the more aggressive type but that one has been decreasing.

[link:https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8073543/amp/TWO-strains-killer-coronavirus-spreading-study-claims.html|

[spanone]

18. Did China run that past mr. pence first?