Mutation in dominant Arizona coronavirus strain may make it more infectious - AZCentral

Over 90 percent of novel coronavirus samples analyzed by researchers have a mutation on the virus's spike that could make it more infectious.

Over 90 percent of novel coronavirus samples from Arizona in a recent genetic analysis have a mutation that researchers hypothesize makes the virus more infectious.

So far, researchers have analyzed more than 1,400 samples of the virus from patients with COVID-19 and have identified a mutated strain that they believe could help explain the recent explosion of cases in the state.

This genetic mutation affects the spikes on the outside of the virus that the virus uses to attach to and infect host cells.

This mutated strain of the virus is the same one that researchers first identified in April as the dominant strain in Arizona and seems to have originated in Europe.

"The earlier strains that came into Arizona didn't have this mutation and those strains didn't go on in most cases to cause any type of sustained outbreaks," Engelthaler said.

In the interview, Fauci cautioned that researchers still need to confirm these theories and analyze the mutation further.

"It's really hard to directly link the fatality rate to the strain of the virus," he said.

This translates to roughly a 5.4% death rate from the virus in the state.

As of July 9, there have been a total of 112,671 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,038 COVID-19 related deaths statewide, translating to about a 1.8% death rate from the virus. .

However, this decreased fatality rate could be because of increased testing statewide, which has allowed the state to better track the total number of coronavirus cases, whereas early numbers may be more likely to only reflect more severe, hospitalized cases. .

"We can't necessarily say that it's directly related to any specific mutations yet in the virus," he said.

It's also important to continue to keep track of virus mutations and try to better understand this spike protein mutation, because any mutations could have a big impact on how effective potential vaccines or treatments are

In particular, since many vaccines and therapeutic drugs are targeting the spikes on the outside of the virus, any harmful mutation on the spike protein could render vaccines useless. 

In addition to mapping out a genetic family tree of the novel coronavirus so that researchers can better understand and research the various strains, TGen will use their genetic analysis to improve the accuracy of the state's COVID-19 contact tracing efforts.