JOIN USMutation rateof Covid-19not a worry:IISc scientist
A study has found Bengaluru’s Covid-19 virus mutation rate faster than in the initial months of the pandemic. That is not a matter of concern, says the scientist who helmed the study.
“The purpose of publishing the findings is not to create panic. The results being spoken about are not all resulting in changes that could make the virus more virulent,” says Prof Utpal S Tatu, department of biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science.
The paper produced by his team was published in the Journal of Proteome Research.
“Many of the mutations do not result in virulence. Some of them might, and some of them have already stabilised, and then there are others which have been reported from across the world, of which we are aware,” Tatu told Metrolife.
Will the existing vaccines work against new mutations?
“Currently there are no concerns about the vaccines not working on the mutant forms. Vaccines are working and inducing immunity, and there is no evidence to believe that the mutations will challenge the vaccines,” he says.
Diagnosis method
Utpal says the more important part of the paper is about the importance of mass spectrometry for diagnosis.
“It opens up a whole new avenue of detecting the virus, not necessarily dependent on RT-PCR tests. It depends on seeing the viral proteins, easier than detecting the genome,” he explains.
In any future pandemic, he says, mass spectrometry could be used as a large-scale diagnostic tool. It offers much more accurate results, he asserts.
“It would still depend on a swab or sputum sample. Once developed and optimised properly, the process will be faster though – for example, at the airport, while one is going through security, the test can be done,” he says.
What is ‘mass spectrometry’?
Mass spectrometry is one of the most sensitive methods of detecting and identifying proteins from complex biological samples, such as saliva, or sputum samples. The method is already being used for identifying bacteria from clinical samples.