New study finds coronavirus has mutated into at least 30 different strains – a potential vaccine just became more difficult

A new study in China has found that the novel coronavirus has mutated into at least 30 different variations. The results showed that medical officials have vastly underestimated the overall ability of the virus to mutate, in findings that different strains have affected different parts of the world, leading to potential difficulties in finding an overall cure. The results showed that medical officials have vastly underestimated the overall ability of the virus to mutate, in findings that different strains have affected different parts of the world, leading to potential difficulties in finding an overall cure.

A mutating RNA virus like SARS-CoV-2 makes a vaccine much more difficult to develop

The study was carried out by Professor Li Lanjuan and colleagues from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China and published in a non-peer reviewed paper released on website medRxiv.org on Sunday. Li’s team analyzed the strains from 11 randomly chosen coronavirus patients from Hangzhou, where there have been 1,264 reported cases, and then tested how efficiently they could infect and kill cells. More than 30 different mutations were detected, of which 19 were previously undiscovered. “Sars-CoV-2 has acquired mutations capable of substantially changing its pathogenicity,” Li wrote in the paper. The team discovered that some of the mutations could lead to functional changes in the virus’ spike protein, the South China Morning Post reported. Spike protein is the protein that the coronavirus uses to attach itself to human cells.  –JP