SATURDAY, June 13, 2020 -- A particular mutation in one strain of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus may have helped it infect more human cells and turn i

Mutation Helps Coronavirus Infect More Human Cells

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2020-06-13 19:21:11

SATURDAY, June 13, 2020 -- A particular mutation in one strain of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus may have helped it infect more human cells and turn it into the dominant strain worldwide, new laboratory research shows.

Researchers at Scripps Research in Jupiter, Fla., stressed that their finding doesn't mean the virus is any more lethal. And because this was research conducted in a lab, it doesn't yet confirm that the mutation makes the strain more likely to spread among people, they added.

Still, "viruses with this mutation were much more infectious than those without the mutation in the cell culture system we used," study senior author and virologist Hyeryun Choe, said in a Scripps news release.

Since the beginning of the global pandemic of COVID-19, experts have wondered why the virus spread relatively easily in certain areas -- New York City and Italy, for example -- and yet was more easily contained in other places, such as San Francisco and Washington state.

The difference may have lain in the actual structure of particular strains. The strain that's now come to dominate underwent a mutation, dubbed D614G, that greatly increased the number of "functional spikes" on the virus' surface.

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