First description of two immune escape indian B.1.1.420 and B.1.617.1 SARS-CoV2 variants in France

  1. Vincent Garcia
  2. Véronique Vig
  3. Laurent Peillard
  4. Alaa Ramdani
  5. Sofiane Mohamed
  6. Philippe Halfon

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Abstract

Following the outbreak of the SARS-CoV2 virus worldwide in 2019, the rapid widespread overtime of variants suggests today an undergoing positive selection of variants which could potentially provide advantageous genetic property of the virus. Numerous variants have already been described across different countries including N501Y, E484K or L452R mutations on gene coding to spike protein. Most recently, 2 new Indian variants with N440K and E484Q and L452R mutations associated with impaired antibody response and immune reactions were identified in India. The potential consequences of emerging variants are increased transmissibility, increased pathogenicity and the ability to escape natural or vaccine-induced immunity.

We described for the first time in France both variants: the N440K immune escape variant within a new strain detected in France in a couple of patients who did not have any history of travel abroad and the new E484Q and L452R Indian variant from a patient travelling from Indian to Marseille to embark on a ship as a crew member.

Such study of the circulating viral strains and their variants within the increasing number of infected people worldwide will provide further insights into the viral dissemination. Hence, real time close monitoring variant could help the scientific community to prevent fast-spreading and raise alarms towards potentially harmful variants.

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    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.05.12.443357: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.05.12.443357v1 on bioRxiv