RIO DE JANEIRO, April 14 (Reuters) – The Brazilian variant of coronavirus P1, behind a deadly rise in COVID-19 in the Latin American country that has raised international alarm, changes ways that could make it more capable of evading antibodies, according to scientists studying the virus.
Research conducted by the public health institute Fiocruz on variants circulating in Brazil found mutations in the tip region of the virus that is used to enter and infect cells.
These changes, the scientists said, could make the virus more resistant to vaccines, which target the tip protein, with potentially serious implications for the severity of the outbreak in the most populous nation in Latin America.
“We believe it is another escape mechanism that the virus is creating to evade the antibody response,” said Felipe Naveca, one of the authors of the study and part of Fiocruz in the Amazonian city of Manaus, where it is believed that the P1 variant originated.
Naveca said the changes appeared to be similar to the mutations seen in the even more aggressive South African variant, against which studies have shown that some vaccines have substantially reduced efficacy.
“This is especially worrying because the virus continues to accelerate in its evolution,” he added.
Studies have shown that the P1 variant is up to 2.5 times more contagious than the original coronavirus and more resistant to antibodies.
On Tuesday, France suspended all flights to and from Brazil in an attempt to prevent the spread of the variant as Latin America’s largest economy becomes increasingly isolated.
The variant, which has quickly become dominant in Brazil, is believed to be a major factor behind a second massive wave that has raised the death toll in the country to more than 350,000, the second highest in the world behind of the United States.
The outbreak in Brazil is also increasingly affecting young people, with hospital data showing that in March more than half of intensive care patients were 40 years of age or younger.
For Ester Sabino, a scientist in the medical school at the University of Sao Paulo who led the first sequencing of the coronavirus genome in Brazil, mutations in the P1 variant are not surprising given the rapid rate of transmission.
“If you have a high level of transmission, like the one you have in Brazil right now, your risk of new mutations and variants increases,” he said.
So far, vaccines, such as those developed by AstraZeneca and Chinese Sinovac, have been shown to be effective against the Brazilian variant, but Sabino said other mutations could put it at risk.
“It’s a real possibility,” he said. (Report by Pedro Fonseca, written by Stephen Eisenhammer Edited by Daniel Flynn and Steve Orlofsky)