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Review
. 2021 Jul:139:111599.
doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2021.111599. Epub 2021 Apr 23.

Novel and emerging mutations of SARS-CoV-2: Biomedical implications

Affiliations
Review

Novel and emerging mutations of SARS-CoV-2: Biomedical implications

Elmira Mohammadi et al. Biomed Pharmacother. 2021 Jul.

Erratum in

Abstract

Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The SARS-CoV-2 virus strains has geographical diversity associated with diverse severity, mortality rate, and response to treatment that were characterized using phylogenetic network analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genomes. Although, there is no explicit and integrative explanation for these variations, the genetic arrangement, and stability of SARS-CoV-2 are basic contributing factors to its virulence and pathogenesis. Hence, understanding these features can be used to predict the future transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 infection, drug development, and vaccine. In this review, we discuss the most recent findings on the mutations in the SARS-CoV-2, which provide valuable information on the genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2, especially for DNA-based diagnosis, antivirals, and vaccine development for COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Genetic variation; Mutation; SARS-CoV-2; Spike protein.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors declare no conflict of interests and/or commercial products or companies.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic structure of SARS-CoV-2 genome.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Entropy plots of all submitted Spike protein sequences. The X-axis shows the positions of amino acids and the Y-axis shows entropy scores for individual positions in Spike protein. (A) Asia, (B) Europe, (C) Africa, (D) South America, (E) North America, and (F) Oceania. Entropy (Hx) values varied from 0 (high conservation) to 1.0 (hypervariable). The amino acids with entropy values less than 0.1 were considered as conserved.

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