Keeping an Eye on B.1.621’s Immune Escape Potential
First detected in Colombia in January, the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.621 was recently named a ‘variant of interest’ by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, reports MedPage Today. So far, neither the World Health Organization nor the CDC has elevated it to this status and it hasn’t received a greek letter designation yet.
B.1.621 has been detected in the US, though it (along with version B.1.621.1) currently accounts for just about 1% of all cases in the country. In the state of Florida, though, recent data from the University of Miami showed that 9% of cases in the Jackson Memorial Health System were B.1.621 as of the second week of July.
Last week, seven residents in a Belgian nursing home died after being infected with B.1.621, despite the fact that all of them had been vaccinated (though which vaccine was not disclosed. All of the deceased were in their 80s or 90s, and some were in poor health already, according to virologist Marc Van Ranst, who conducted tests on the virus found in the nursing home, Reuters reported. A total of 21 residents had been infected with the variant, along with several staff members. However, infected staff only had mild symptoms. B.1.621 makes up less than 1% of known cases in Belgium overall, according to Reuters.
Public Health England said that as of 2 August, there have been 32 cases (PDF) of the variant in England, with the majority (19%) being detected in London. This new variant has E484K and K417N mutations, making it similar to the Beta variant (B.1.351), prompting concern that B.1.621 could have similar immune escape properties, the agency noted.
In a recent risk assessment (PDF), Public Health England said that there is lab evidence of a reduction in pseudovirus neutralisation in the serum of vaccinated or previously Delta-infected individuals.
However, the agency noted that the trajectory of this new variant depends on its growth and expansion, and currently there’s no sign that it’s outcompeting Delta and it also seems unlikely that it’s more contagious. Still, its immune escape properties could contribute to future changes in growth, they warned, and other epidemiological events could influence whether it becomes established in the UK.
A recent paper in Lancet Infectious Diseases found two cases of B.1.621 involving community transmission, at a time when 99% of cases were due to the Delta variant. Both of these cases however occurred among unvaccinated individuals.
However, the dominance of Delta seems to be keeping other variants at bay, at least for now.
Source: MedPage Today