COVID-19 Guidance and information collection on the new mutant variants of the SARS-CoV-2 (2019nCoV) virus

- COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2): information about the new virus variant
- New SARS-COV-2 variant: information and risk assessment
- Central Alerting System (CAS) alert
- New variant clustering in households analysis (ONS)
- SARS-CoV-2 lateral flow antigen tests: evaluation of VUI-202012/01
- WTO: Statement of the WHO Working Group on COVID-19 Animal Models (WHO-COM) about the UK and South African SARS-CoV-2 new variants.
- EMA guidance for COVID-19 vaccine
- Investigation of novel SARS-CoV-2 variant: Variant of Concern 202012/01
    • Investigation of novel SARS-CoV-2 variant: 202012/01. Technical briefing 6
    • Investigation of novel SARS-CoV-2 variant: 202012/01. Technical briefing 5
    • Investigation of novel SARS-CoV-2 variant: 202012/01. Technical briefing 4
    • Investigation of novel SARS-CoV-2 variant: 202012/01. Technical briefing 3
    • Investigation of novel SARS-CoV-2 variant: 202012/01. Technical briefing 2
    • Investigation of novel SARS-CoV-2 variant: 202012/01. Technical briefing 1

New variant of SARS-COV-2 (2019nCOV) B.1.1.7 lineage spreaded in UK

The world is in midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently a novel SARS-COV-2 (2019nCOV) lineage, the B.1.1.7 lineage, with serials of site mutation, shows stronger infection ability in the UK. The SARS-COV-2 B.1.1.7 lineage carries a larger than a usual number of coronavirus genetic changes. 

Extended Reading: Preliminary genomic characterisation of an emergent SARS-CoV-2 lineage in the UK defined by a novel set of spike mutations

Relative products collection: GeneMedi products for New variant of SARS-COV-2 (2019nCOV) UK B.1.1.7 lineage

New variant of SARS-COV-2 (2019nCOV) 501Y.V2 lineage(B.1.351) spreaded in South African SARS-CoV-2

The South African variant is characterized by eight lineage-defining mutations in the spike protein including three key residues in the receptor binding domain (K417N, E484K and N501Y) and is referred to as lineage 501Y.V2.

Extended Reading: Alert Notification: New SARS-CoV-2 variant with multiple spike protein mutations

Relative products collection: GeneMedi products for New variant of SARS-COV-2 (2019nCOV) South Africa 501Y.V2 lineage(B.1.351)

About COVID-19 Pandemic and SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel viral pneumonia caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). First discovered in Wuhan, a city in Hubei province of China, COVID-19 has already broken out throughout the world and posed a great threat to the public health, especially in Europe and North America now. Additionally, person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 disease is reported to be extremely rapid [158-160]. To date, more than one million cases were infected with COVID-19 and over 55,000 deaths occurred. Therefore, it is really urgent and noteworthy to develop the vaccines specific to COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2.

Belonging to the Betacoronavirus genus family, SARS-CoV-2 is 60～200nm in diameter and encapsidates a large positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus (26-32kb) with many spikes on the virus capsid (Fig. 17A). The RNA genome of SARS-CoV-2 encodes several accessory proteins and structural proteins, such as nucleocapsid (N) protein, envelope (E) protein, membrane (M) protein, and spike (S) protein (Fig. 10B). Although the detailed mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 infection has not been clearly illuminated, several studies demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 enters human cells via utilizing spike (S) protein to bind to the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE2) on the surface of target cell [161, 162].
Figure S1. SARS-CoV-2 capsid structure and genome map. (A) Three-dimensional structure diagram of SARS-CoV-2. (B) Genome organization of SARS-CoV-2 [158]. ORF: open reading frame. E: envelope. M: membrane. N: nucleocapsid. HR1: heptad repeat 1. HR2: heptad repeat 2. SP: signal peptide. NTD: N-terminal domain. RBD: receptor binding domain. S: spike. S1: subunit 1. S2: subunit 2. TM: transmembrane domain. Since the genome sequences of SARS-CoV were discovered and reported (https://www.gisaid.org/CoV2020/), a large number of pharmaceutical enterprises and research organizations are sparing all efforts to the vaccine development. Different companies utilize different targets and antigen epitopes. Some of the advances are listed in the following Table 10 (from WHO), and most of them focus on viral vector-based vaccines (replicating or non-replicating viral vector-based vaccines), recombinant protein (Spike), and nucleic acid-based vaccines. To date, two COVID-19 vaccines have entered Phase I clinical testing to assess the safety and potency of vaccines. One is mRNA-1273, was developed by Moderna Therapeutics, encoding a prefusion-stabilized form of Spike (S) protein [163] (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41587-020-00005-z). Another vaccine is recombinant protein of SARS-CoV-2 antigen, developed by Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, Institute of Military Medicine. It was predicted that these vaccines can be applied in clinics in a large scale as early as 2021 if they can successfully pass the clinical testing. Although there is a long way for theses vaccines to be applied for prevention and therapy of COVID-19, they indeed bring great hope and light to people all over the world.