According to a study published in the JAMA journal, a variant of the coronavirus discovered in California is spreading very quickly around the world. It is not clear yet whether it could be more dangerous than the other variants, but researchers speculate that it could soon become the dominant variant of the coronavirus.
The Californian variant of the coronavirusis named B.1.429 or CAL.20C. It was first observed in July 2022 in Los Angeles County, Southern California. In November and December 2022, it began to spread rapidly, leading to a sudden increase in infections.
Currently, according to scientists from Cedars-Sinai Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics, this variant is detected in almost half of COVID-19 patients in Southern California - the percentage of new cases caused by this coronavirus variant is constantly growing and is already almost twice as high as a month ago.
A study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found CAL.20C was detected in 19 states as of January 22: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming and in the capital - Washington. He has been found abroad so far in Australia, Denmark, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore and Great Britain.
So farit is still known whether the Californian variant of the coronavirus is more dangerous than the other variants of thecoronavirus. There are no strong clinical data to support greater infectivity and mortality. However, it is known that the Californian variant of the coronavirus contains an L452R mutation in the spike protein, which has the potential to reduce the effectiveness of currently used vaccines. Research on it is ongoing, and it is carried out, among others, by scientists from Cedars-Sinai.
CAL.20C is defined by five recurring variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, including the L452R variant which was previously reported by the California Department of Public He alth. It differs from other strains present in the US, including B.1.1.7 from Great Britain and B.1.351 from AfricaSouth.
"New variants do not always affect the behavior of the virus in the body. We are interested in the CAL.20C strain because three of its five variants involve a so-called spike protein, which allows SARS-CoV-2 virus to attack and infect normal cells, 'said another study co-author, the drug. Dr. Eric Vail, Associate Professor of Pathology and Director of Molecular Pathology at Cedars-Sinai's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
Although the rate of emergence of new infections has slowed recently, Los Angeles County remains one of the outbreaks of the pandemic. From the beginning of the pandemic to February 9 this year. the county has reported over 1 million COVID-19 cases and over 18,000 deaths.
To track the increase in infections and the spread of CAL.20C, Cedars-Sinai specialists use an advanced technique known as next-generation sequencing. The research material consists of virus samples taken from Cedars-Sinai patients who tested positive for the coronavirus, as well as random samples of SARS-CoV-2 viruses in publicly available databases.
source: PAP