In the delta variant, there is a specific mutation in the core of the virus. The technology used by researchers can be applied to other research as well
Coronavirus the delta variant has become the predominant form of viral disease worldwide. It is more susceptible to infection and spreading than other forms of the virus, and delta transformation has somehow taken up space from less contagious variants.
The delta transformation was first observed in India as early as the end of last year.
But why is it so hectic to grab? Viruses are constantly changing. It is already known that the delta variant contains certain mutations in the spike protein that allow the virus to invade cells.
Spike protein is probably a familiar concept to many at this point. For example, the mrna vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are based on the body learning to recognize this spike protein and thus protect itself against the virus.
But there are other proteins in the structure of the virus. Published in Science in the study another important mutation has been found in the coronavirus delta variant that substantially increases viral infectivity.
This mutation is in the nucleocapsid of the virus, that is, in a way, in the envelope of the virus, which contains the infectious genome of the virus. The existence of the mutation is known, but now its function was further elucidated.
While the favorable form of the spike protein first helps the virus to enter the cell, this second mutation helps the virus to spread its genome more efficiently inside the cell. As a result, the infected cell produces even more new viruses.
New the discovery was made possible by a witty invention by a Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna developed with colleagues.
According to the journal Science, much of the research on the genome of the coronavirus focuses precisely on the spike protein, as its function is easily studied in the laboratory with artificial but harmless viruses.
For example, lentivirus can be engineered to develop coronavirus spikes. However, other coronavirus proteins are not accessible in these models.
Doudna and colleagues are now tailoring so-called virus-like particles in the laboratory.
They are a kind of puppet virus. They have all the structural proteins of the virus and are very similar to the real coronavirus, but they are completely harmless. They have no coronavirus genome at all, so they cannot cause infection. They are like cartridge cartridges.
However, these virus-like particles can penetrate cells in the laboratory just like a real virus, so their properties can be monitored.
The researchers loaded a small piece of special mrna code into such a doll virus. When this snippet of code enters a cell with a virus, it makes the cell glow under the microscope.
The brighter the cells, the more this mrna code has entered them. This also tells you how effectively the right virus would spread the genuine genome into the cell.
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“The mutation in the delta transformation causes the virus to produce infectious particles more efficiently, and therefore it spreads better.”
Doll viruses was tampered with a little more. The researchers modified the r203m mutation already known in their nucleocapsid from the corona delta transformation.
Play viruses with this mutation were clearly more effective infectious agents.
“This single change in the protein of the delta variant nucleocapsid loaded ten times more mrna code into the cells than the original coronavirus,” says Doudna. Science-in leaf.
Next, the researchers repeated the experiment with genuine coronavirus. They tampered with the same r203m mutation into the virus and infected the lung cells with the virus. Infected cells produced 51 times more infectious viruses than the original coronavirus strains.
This seems to be based, at least in part, on the sensitivity of the delta transformation to spread.
In coronavirus infection, the virus harnesses the cells in the body to produce more virus. However, the virus factory is not working at full capacity, as almost all the virus particles produced by the diseased cells are unable to infect more cells.
But the more efficiently the coronavirus gets the RNA genome inserted into the cell, the more infectious virus particles it is able to produce.
“A mutation in a delta transformation causes the virus to produce infectious particles more efficiently and therefore spreads better,” explains the first author of the study. Abdullah Syed.
It is this mutation in the coronavirus nucleocapsid that deserves more attention, the researchers say.
The “doll viruses” or virus-like particles used in this study could also make the coronavirus easier to study. The study of such harmlessly tailored virus models does not require as extreme safeguards as the study of a genuine coronavirus.
Still reliable information can only be obtained by making these mutations in real viruses, recalls the Nobel Prize-winning virologist Charles Rice From the Rockefeller Institute.
Jennifer Doudna, who conducted the research, was also awarded a Nobel Prize last year for her work in the development of the revolutionary gene modification method crispr-cas9. However, the new study is not directly related to this method.
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