An Indian Study Identified 108 SARS-CoV-2 Mutations In Wastewater
New research carried out by scientists from Pune has identified a total of 108 SARS-CoV-2 mutations. This comprises 4 novel mutations in India, which were detected in samples of wastewater retrieved during a period of five months from December 2020 to April 2021 from Pune city.
Significantly, most of these mutations, according to the professionals, were not disclosed anywhere in the country even though these were globally known. The new 4 mutations- NSP3:L550del, NSP14:C279F, S:C480R, and S:N801- were never revealed from the data acquired for clinical studies on ‘Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Flu’.
India encountered the dangerous second wave of COVID-19 during the months of June and March in 2021. INSACOG (Indian SARS-Cov-2 Genomics Consortium), a committed group studying the SARS-CoV-2 mutations and variants, had identified the presence of a novel variant, which was later termed as Delta, from samples retrieved from Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region during the period between October to November 2020.
During the second wave of COVID-19, the highly dominant variant of Maharashtra was B.1.617.1.
This collaborative research led by researchers at CSIR-NCL (National Chemical Laboratory) together with Pune’s ESF (Ecosan Services Foundation) and Ghaziabad’s AcSIR (Academy of
Scientific & Innovative Research), has concluded that all samples of wastewater retrieved during these 5 months were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 consistently.According to the article published in the Science Direct’s journal, STOTEN (Science of the Total Environment), the samples for the research were retrieved from an open wastewater sewer close to Deccan (Prabhat Road Basin), which enters the Mutha river.
The scientists stated that 108 mutations of SARS-CoV-2 were identified in total. Primarily, samples retrieved during the month of March in 2021 indicated the presence of E484Q and L452R mutations which were missing in samples collected during December 2020.
While the world pursues its battle against COVID-19 for more than 1.5 years, NCL researchers have proposed the use of an epidemiological approach based on wastewater to understand and obtain comparative infection mechanisms for a specific location, as it can help ascertain the affected region’s COVID-19 severity
The scientists claimed that it can be deduced that wastewater can serve as an advanced warning system and frequent examination of water can be an important resource and become a necessary aspect for the research of variants in transmission.
108 SARS-CoV-2 Mutations In Wastewater
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