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SARS-CoV-2 mutations in competition
UNIVERSITY OF BERN

NEWS RELEASE 26-FEB-2021

The D614G variant carries a mutation in the spike protein that makes it easier for the virus to dock onto human cells. The researchers at IVI and in David E. Wentworth's laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta (USA) first demonstrated in human cell cultures from the upper respiratory tract, as well as from the nose, that the D614G variant binds more strongly and also replicates faster than the original virus. The increased replication of the D614G variant was also confirmed in vivo, in a new mouse model first described in this study. These experiments were also carried out at the IVI in Charaf Benarafa's group.

The IVI relies on a cloning technique developed in Bern a year ago, in which SARS-CoV-2 viruses can be exactly reproduced in the laboratory. The British virus, for example, is known to have not just one but often more than 14 mutations, eight of which occur in the spike protein. Thus, with the help of the cloning technique, any number of mutations of variants can be reproduced and used to compete against each other in the established cell cultures and animal models. The results show how single mutations affect the fitness and transmissibility of new variants. "Our testing strategy allows us to rapidly examine why other, newly emerging virus variants have become established," says Volker Thiel.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-02/uob-smi022621.php

Looking back

The only licensed live attenuated influenza A virus vaccines (LAIVs) in the United States (FluMist)

In addition, this study suggests that the safety of LAIVs should be closely monitored after mass vaccination and that novel strategies to continue to improve LAIV vaccine safety should be investigated.

https://jvi.asm.org/content/90/19/8454.short

Biosafety risk assessment for production of candidate vaccine viruses to protect humans from zoonotic highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses

A major lesson learned from the public health response to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic was the need to shorten the vaccine delivery timeline to achieve the best pandemic mitigation results

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/irv.12698

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