A South African research paper released this month detailed a new variant of the COVID-19 virus, with scientists noting that it has “concerning constellations of mutations.”
The new variant has been identified as a potential variant of interest (VOI) of Covid-19 that is assigned to the PANGO lineage C.1.2. It was first detected in May 2021 in the Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces of South Africa and has now spread to most South African provinces and to seven other countries, including England, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, New Zealand, Portugal, and Switzerland, according to CTV News Canada.
The study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, is a collaboration between researchers from the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform. The paper is posted on the pre-print server medRxiv.
“C.1.2 is highly mutated beyond C.1 and all other [variants of concern] and [variants of interest] globally with between 44-59 mutations away from the original Wuhan Hu-1 virus,” the researchers wrote, per The Hill.
“While the phenotypic characteristics and epidemiology of C.1.2 are being defined, it is important to highlight this lineage given its concerning constellations of mutations,” they said.
In this case, the C.1.2. variant evolved from C.1, one of the lineages that dominated the first wave of SARS-CoV-2infections in South Africa and was last detected in January 2021.
The new variant shares a number of mutations common to all variants of concern – alpha, beta, delta, and gamma – plus an additional three variants of interest. The researchers surmise these mutations likely occurred in a single individual who had a prolonged case of COVID-19, resulting in an accelerated evolution.
“While these mutations are not characteristic of current VOCs/VOIs, they have been associated with escape from certain class 3 neutralizing antibodies,” they wrote. “The combination of these mutations presents a potentially novel antigenic landscape for C.1.2 variant-specific antibodies.”
As of August 20, 2021, 80 sequences that match the C.1.2 lineage have been listed on the open-access database GISAID (Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data).
