The Rise and Fall of a Local SARS-CoV-2 Variant with the Spike Protein Mutation L452R

Emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants may threaten global vaccination efforts and the awaited reduction in outbreak burden. In this study, we report a novel variant carrying the L452R mutation that emerged from a local B.1.362 lineage, B.1.362+L452R. The L452R mutation is associated with the Delta and Epsilo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Vaccines (Basel) 2021-08, Vol.9 (8), p.937
Main Authors: Mor, Orna, Mandelboim, Michal, Fleishon, Shay, Bucris, Efrat, Bar-Ilan, Dana, Linial, Michal, Nemet, Ital, Kliker, Limor, Lustig, Yaniv, Israel National Consortium For Sars-CoV-Sequencing, Mendelson, Ella S, Zuckerman, Neta S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bioinformatics
Disease spread
Genomes
Mutation
Neutralization
Phylogenetics
Proteins
Quality control
Reduction
SARS-CoV-2
sequencing
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Spike protein
Surveillance
Testing laboratories
Vaccination
Vaccines
variant
Viral diseases
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Summary:Emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants may threaten global vaccination efforts and the awaited reduction in outbreak burden. In this study, we report a novel variant carrying the L452R mutation that emerged from a local B.1.362 lineage, B.1.362+L452R. The L452R mutation is associated with the Delta and Epsilon variants and was shown to cause increased infection and reduction in neutralization in pseudoviruses. Indeed, the B.1.362+L452R variant demonstrated a X4-fold reduction in neutralization capacity of sera from BNT162b2-vaccinated individuals compared to a wild-type strain. The variant infected 270 individuals in Israel between December 2020 and March 2021, until diminishing due to the gain in dominance of the Alpha variant in February 2021. This study demonstrates an independent, local emergence of a variant carrying a critical mutation, L452R, which may have the potential of becoming a variant of concern and emphasizes the importance of routine surveillance and detection of novel variants among efforts undertaken to prevent further disease spread.
ISSN:2076-393X
2076-393X
DOI:10.3390/vaccines9080937