Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul 6:14:2579-2581.
doi: 10.2147/IDR.S320658. eCollection 2021.

Detection of Representative Mutant Strains and a Case of Prolonged Infection by SARS-CoV-2 with Spike 69/70 Deletion in Japan

Kazuki Takano  1   2 , Yuji Watanabe  1   2 , Maya Hariu  1   2 , Masafumi Seki  1
Affiliations

Detection of Representative Mutant Strains and a Case of Prolonged Infection by SARS-CoV-2 with Spike 69/70 Deletion in Japan

Kazuki Takano et al. Infect Drug Resist. .

Abstract

There is a concern that the spread of mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2 will increase the number of severe COVID-19 patients and weaken vaccine effectiveness in the world. The mutants of the spike region of SARS-CoV-2, such as N501Y, E484K, P681H, and deletion H69/V70 (del 69/70), were studied in 25 COVID-19 patients admitted from December 2020 to April 2021; there were no patients with N501Y and P681H, but nine patients had E484K alone. Their symptoms, laboratory data, and course of their disease were similar to those of the other patients with the non-mutant virus. One patient with del69/70 alone showed prolonged inflammation, viral excretion, and late exacerbation 18 days after onset. Del69/70 may be independently associated with evasion of immunity, as previously reported, and it is present in Japan.

Keywords: COVID-19; E484K; N501Y; P681H; PCR; remdesivir; vaccine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The chest X-ray (A) and computed tomography (CT) (B) findings of a 39-year-old COVID-19 patient. Almost no abnormal findings, including ground glass opacities (GGOs), are seen.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Seki M. Trends in the management of infectious disease under SARS-CoV-2 era: from pathophysiological comparison of COVID-19 and influenza. World J Virol. 2021;10:62–68. doi:10.5501/wjv.v10.i2.62 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kuzmina A, Khalaila Y, Voloshin O, et al. SARS-CoV-2 spike variants exhibit differential infectivity and neutralization resistance to convalescent or post-vaccination sera. Cell Host Microbe. 2021;29:522–528. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2021.03.008 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rambaut A, Loman N, Pybus O, et al. Preliminary genomic characterisation of an emergent SARS-CoV-2 lineage in the UK defined by a novel set of spike mutations. ARTIC Network 2020; Available from: https://virological.org/t/preliminary-genomic-characterisation-of-an-eme.... Accessed June26, 2021.
    1. Lubinski B, Tang T, Daniel S, Jaimes JA, Whittaker GR. Functional evaluation of proteolytic activation for the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7: role of the P681H mutation. bioRxiv. 2021. doi:10.1101/2021.04.06.438731. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kemp SA, Collier DA, Datir RP, et al. SARS-CoV-2 evolution during treatment of chronic infection. Nature. 2021;592:277–282. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03291-y - DOI - PMC - PubMed