New coronavirus variant ‘IHU’ identified in France
The B.1.640.2 variant has been linked to travel to African country Cameroon
As the world grapples with the highly mutated Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, scientists have identified a new strain of the COVID-19 causing virus in Southern France.
Known as ‘IHU’, the B.1.640.2 variant has been reported by researchers at institute IHU Mediterranee Infection in at least 12 cases, and has been linked to travel to African country Cameroon.
However, the researchers noted that it is too early to speculate on how this variant behaves as far as infection and protection from vaccines is concerned.
The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study, posted on the preprint repository MedRxiv on December 29, revealed that IHU has 46 mutations and 37 deletions resulting in 30 amino acid substitutions and 12 deletions.
Amino acids are molecules that combine to form proteins, and both are the building blocks of life.
Fourteen amino acid substitutions, including N501Y and E484K, and nine deletions are located in the spike protein.
Most currently used vaccines are targeted at the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which the virus uses to enter and infect the cells.
N501Y and E484K mutations were earlier also found in Beta, Gamma, Theta and Omicron variants.
“The mutation set and phylogenetic position of the genomes obtained here indicate based on our previous definition a new variant we named IHU,” the authors of the study said.
