Whether the D614G mutation makes the new coronavirus more dangerous

BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua Feng Yuxuan) As the new crown epidemic spreads around the world, Malaysia's Ministry of Health Director Noor Shisham said in a recent post on social media that the country had recently isolated four patients with two cluster infections from the new coronavirus strain carrying the D614G mutation, adding that the strain that caused the mutation was "10 times contagious."
the spread of the mutant strain, the public is concerned about whether it is more dangerous to carry the new coronavirus strain, known as the D614G mutation. Will it affect the development of the new crown vaccine?
coronavirus belongs to the RNA (RNA) virus and mutates relatively quickly. Researchers at University College London reported in early May in the journal Infection, Genetics and Evolution that they had identified 198 recurring mutations in the genome of the new coronavirus, which shared the same ancestor from the end of 2019.
D614G is not actually a new mutation and has been isolated and identified in the early stages of the outbreak. Maria van Kerkhov, head of the World Health Organization's new coronavirus technology, reported in early July that the strain had been identified as early as February, when it was mainly spreading in Europe and the Americas.
D614G mutation means that the 614th amino acid on the new coronavirus pyrethroid protein has changed from tyrosine (D) to glycine (G), according to a may commentary published on the website of the American Journal of Science translational medicine. Glycine is a non-polar amino acid, and tiandonine has a charged polar side chain, taking into account the differences in the basic properties of the two amino acids, the D614G mutation is unlikely to be a "silent mutation", but is considered to have significant biological significance.
does this biological significance come about? Does it mean more pathogenic and contagious? Scientists disagree. In a study published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases in May, researchers analyzed the new coronavirus "system evolution tree" containing more than 4,000 viral genomes and found that strains infected with D614G mutations may be associated with higher rates of death. The researchers observed that one of the characteristics of new coronavirus strains that may have caused fatal infections in the European population was the carrying of the D614G mutation. But the researchers also stress that the study lacks experimental evidence and is only an analysis of limited data.
In another study published online in the American journal Cell in early July, researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and other agencies reported that strains carrying the D614G mutation have become one of the most common strains in the global new crown pandemic, with a cyclical increase in infection compared to strains that do not carry D614G mutations, indicating that D614G variants are more likely to increase in adaptability. The study also found that infection with a strain carrying the D614G variant increased the load of the upper respiratory tract virus, but did not increase the severity of the disease.
Van Kerkhoff also stressed that so far, there is no evidence that strains carrying the D614G mutation cause more serious diseases. It is generally accepted in the scientific community that more research is needed to determine whether the D614G mutation will have a significant impact on the speed and pathogenicity of the new coronavirus.
a number of existing studies, some experts believe that the D614G mutation is also unlikely to have much impact on the effectiveness of the new crown vaccine. Most of the new coronary vaccines in the study of the new coronavirus pyrethroid protein binding domain (RBD) as the target, through the expression of hedgehog protein RBD induces the body's immune system to produce a binding to the new coronavirus of the median antibody, so as to achieve the goal of preventing infection. The D614G mutation is not in the hedgehog protein RBD and is therefore unlikely to affect the ability of vaccines that express RBD to induce the body's immune response.