New research led by the Doherty Institute has found the SARS-CoV-2 virus has the ability to momentarily accelerate its evolutionary pace, enabling variants to emerge more rapidly than other viruses.
Dr. Duchene explained that usually all viruses mutate at a fairly constant rate, with most taking a year or more to develop a new variant.
“However, what we were seeing with the variants of SARS-CoV-2, particularly the variants of concern, is that they have undergone many more mutations than we would expect under the normal evolutionary pace of similar coronaviruses,” Dr. Duchene said.
“The Delta variant, for example, emerged within just six weeks from its ancestral form.”
To understand why this was occurring, Dr. Duchene’s laboratory conducted computational analyses of hundreds of genome sequences from SARS-CoV-2 strains to understand the mechanisms under which variants of concern emerge, with a focus on the first four: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta.
“Initially it was believed that SARS-CoV-2 must have increased its evolutionary rate in general, but actually it’s the virus’s ability to temporarily increase its speed which is causing the difference in pace,” Dr. Duchene said.
“It’s like someone pumping the accelerator on a car.”
Dr. Duchene said these bursts could be driven by a number of factors including prolonged infections in individuals, strong natural selection, which is enabling the virus to favor immune escape, or increased transmissibility with unvaccinated populations allowing the virus to rapidly spread and evolve.
The discovery highlights the importance of continued genome surveillance efforts to ensure early detection of new variants.
“With this virus evolving so rapidly, early detection is paramount in enabling us to monitor and respond to the virus,” said Dr. Duchene.
He also stressed the need for increased vaccination.
“Anything we can do to have less virus out there will help reduce the probability that new variants will emerge.”
The team of researchers included the Doherty Institute’s Dr. Ash Porter, Dr. Wytamma Wirth and University of Melbourne Masters Student John Tay.
News
Common Medication Could Save Half a Million Lives Each Year – So Why Isn’t It?
A recent study conducted by scientists at the University of Southern California sheds light on the reasons why children are not receiving an affordable and effective diarrhea treatment. Medical professionals in developing nations are [...]
X Marks the Spot: AI’s Treasure Maps Lead to Early Disease Detection
Medical diagnostics expert, doctor’s assistant, and cartographer are all fair titles for an artificial intelligence model developed by researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Their new model accurately identifies tumors [...]
Scientists Discover Method To Identify Alzheimer’s Disease Before It Progresses to Dementia
Researchers at Aarhus University have discovered a method to identify Alzheimer’s disease before it progresses to dementia, potentially opening up new avenues for treatment. A groundbreaking study could pave the way for early detection [...]
Startling Discovery: COVID-19 Virus Can Stay in the Body More Than a Year After Infection
The COVID-19 virus can persist in the blood and tissue of patients for more than a year after the acute phase of the illness has ended, according to new research from UC San Francisco that offers potential [...]
New bioengineered protein design shows promise in fighting COVID-19
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists have been racing to develop effective treatments and preventatives against the virus. A recent scientific breakthrough has emerged from the work of researchers aiming to combat [...]
Sugar-coated gold nanoparticles can quickly eliminate bacterial infections, no antibiotics required
If left to their own devices, bacteria on our teeth or wounded skin can encase themselves in a slimy scaffolding, turning into what is called biofilm. These bacteria wreak havoc on our tissue and, [...]
Liquid Lightning: Nanotechnology Unlocks New Energy
EPFL researchers have discovered that nanoscale devices harnessing the hydroelectric effect can harvest electricity from the evaporation of fluids with higher ion concentrations than purified water, revealing a vast untapped energy potential. Evaporation is a natural [...]
Unmasking the Illusion: AI-Generated Faces Challenge Perceptions
Research shows survey participants duped by AI-generated images nearly 40 percent of the time. If you recently had trouble figuring out if an image of a person is real or generated through artificial intelligence [...]
New Discovery Reveals How Cells Defend Themselves During Stressful Situations
Stress granules play a crucial role in the stress response, arising from the aggregation of non-translating mRNAs and proteins. Although significant knowledge exists about stress granules, the mechanisms behind their mRNA localization remain partially [...]
Scientists use a new type of nanoparticle that can both deliver vaccines and act as an adjuvant
Many vaccines, including vaccines for hepatitis B and whooping cough, consist of fragments of viral or bacterial proteins. These vaccines often include other molecules called adjuvants, which help to boost the immune system's response [...]
Not Science Fiction: How Optical Neural Networks Are Revolutionizing AI
A novel architecture for optical neural networks utilizes wavefront shaping to precisely manipulate the travel of ultrashort pulses through multimode fibers, enabling nonlinear optical computation. Present-day artificial intelligence systems rely on billions of adjustable [...]
Turning skin cells into limb cells sets the stage for regenerative therapy
In a collaborative study, researchers from Kyushu University and Harvard Medical School have identified proteins that can turn or “reprogram” fibroblasts — the most commonly found cells in skin and connective tissue — into [...]
AI reveals prostate cancer is not just one disease
Artificial Intelligence has helped scientists reveal a new form of aggressive prostate cancer, which could revolutionise how the disease is diagnosed and treated in the future. A Cancer Research UK-funded study, published in Cell Genomics, has revealed [...]
New Study Finds That Persistent COVID-19 Infections Are Surprisingly Common
Recent research conducted by the University of Oxford has found that a high proportion of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the general population lead to persistent infections lasting a month or more. The findings have been published in the journal Nature. [...]
Innovative nanosheet method revolutionizes brain imaging for multi-scale and long-term studies
The human brain has billions of neurons. Working together, they enable higher-order brain functions such as cognition and complex behaviors. To study these higher-order brain functions, it is important to understand how neural activity [...]
Scientists Have Discovered a Potential Universal Antivenom
Scientists at Scripps Research identified antibodies that protect against a host of lethal snake venoms. Scripps Research scientists have developed an antibody that can block the effects of lethal toxins in the venoms of [...]