New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: As the country is witnessing a continuous rise in COVID-19 cases, a new variant, 'N440K', has been reported in the southern part of India, especially Andhra Pradesh. Reportedly, this new variant of SARS-CoV-2 is the reason behind the havoc caused in Visakhapatnam, Karnataka, Telangana and other southern parts. Also, this virus was found in parts of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
What is 'N440K'?
As per reports, N440K is a powerful variant that spreads rapidly, leading to severe complications. It is said to be 15 times more powerful than the original variant because if a person infected with the original variant would reach the dyspnea or hypoxia stage within a week, but if a person infected with N440K would reach the serious condition-stage within just three-four days. Also, it is believed that the Andhra COVID strain can transmit to more than four people within a short span.
What CCMB has to stay about N440K?
Debunking all the reports, the Hyderabad based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) said that there is no evidence regarding the Andhra COVID strain is deadly or more infectious than other COVID-19 strains. Speaking to ThePrint, CCMB's Director Rakesh Mishra further added that N440K is less than 5 per cent in the state. Also, it is on the verge to disappear or get replaced by other existing variants.
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"There is no unique AP strain or a Vishakapatnam strain. Neither were any existing strains found to be more infectious or deadly than what we already saw before. The N440K has been around for quite some time and was prevalent in other southern states (Karnataka, Kerala) earlier. But now the N440K in Andhra is less than 5 per cent and is likely to be replaced by a double mutant or any other variant. It could have been around during the first wave also," Rakesh Mishra was quoted saying.
Meanwhile, CCMB's Vishal Seth, one of the authors of the pre-print, took to his Twitter handle and clarified that the study did not compare the virus with B.1.17 UK or B.1.617 Indian variant. He wrote, "We did not compare the infective titer of N440K with the UK or double mutant in this study. We compared it with its parent strain which did not have N440K mutation and with another strain which is now almost lost among the population."
Have a look at series of tweets:
So a few days back we published a preprint from our lab that N440K variant (also known as B.1.36) has more infectious fitness than its parent lineage A2a ( also known as D614G mutant or B.1.1.8) and an unrelated A3i variant (aka B.6)
— Vishal Sah (@acurious_one) May 4, 2021
We did not compare the infective titer of N440K with UK or double mutant in this study. We compared it with its parent strain which did not have N440K mutation and with another strain which is now almost lost among the population.
— Vishal Sah (@acurious_one) May 4, 2021
For unversed, N440K stands for the amino acid at the 440th position of the spike protein changed to the K.