On the afternoon of April 2, the Suzhou CDC introduced that, in terms of transmission channels, most of the current New Coronavirus rapid test cases in Suzhou are clearly imported from outside the province, but there are other isolated cases. For example, on March 28th in Changshu, Suzhou, a case of light New Coronavirus rapid nucleic acid testing confirmed case Yang, whose infection, by sequencing comparison for the VOC/Omicron variant strain BA.1.1 evolutionary branch, in the database of local and imported cases, the global New Coronavirus GISAlD database are not found in the New Coronavirus genome highly homologous sequence.
The new coronavirus has swept the world and due to its RNA virus nature, multiple mutant strains were monitored around the world during the outbreak. So how exactly is the process of naming and other processes carried out after a mutant strain is monitored? What does it mean for us? What are the considerations in terms of our outbreak prevention and control? Is the new crown nucleic acid rapid test still valid?
The definition of a mutant strain is actually based on the membrane protein of the mutant strain, which is the protein on the surface of the virus, equivalent to the "wall" of the virus, which is the "spike" protein of the new coronavirus. Once this is clear, let's talk about the process.
First, after an infected person is determined to be positive for the new crown nucleic acid rapid test, the flow investigators will trace the source of infection based on their epidemiological investigation; then experts will analyze the genetic sequence of the virus and compare it with the genetic sequence of currently discovered viruses (the strain information will be uploaded to the public repository for global use), and when the same strain is not matched, it will be necessary to go through multiple rounds of When the same strain is not matched, it is analyzed to confirm the evolutionary process of the virus, and depending on the evolutionary development it is then seen whether it should become a branch (i.e. whether there is subsequent spread on a large scale), and finally it is named according to its characteristics and uploaded to the repository.
The rapid detection of new crown nucleic acid plays an important role in the whole process. Since the mutant strains can differ from the original strains in terms of gene sequence, the precise new crown nucleic acid rapid detection of the virus becomes an important step in the process.
Although their genetic sequences differ, rapid nucleic acid detection of new coronaviruses is mainly based on the specific identification of the N gene cassette ORF1ab gene, two gene fragments that are the hallmarks of new coronaviruses, so that the presence of these two gene fragments with a certain Ct value will identify an infected person.
As the first step in defining a new strain, the rapid nucleic acid test for new crown plays an important role. There is no need to be overly alarmed in the face of the emergence of new strains. Due to the uncertainty of their mutations, the appearance of a new strain does not mean that the new strain will be more harmful than the existing one.
