France detects new Covid-19 variant IHU with '46 mutations', 12 infected

French researchers have detected a new Covid variant probably of Cameroonian origin and have temporarily named it as IHUThe new variant from the lineage named B16402 is believed to have infected 12 people in the country according to a yettobe peerreviewed study supported by the French GovernmentIt has 46 mutations and 37 deletionsFor twelve SARSCoVpositive patients living in the same geographical area of southeastern France qPCR testing that screen for variantassociated mutations showed an atypical combination said Philippe Colson from IHU Mediterranee Infection Marseille FranceHowever it is too early to speculate on virological epidemiological or clinical features of this IHU variant based on these 12 cases Colson saidAccording to the study the index case the first patient was an vaccinated adult who had returned to France from a trip to Cameroon in central AfricaThree days after returning he developed mild respiratory symptoms His nasopharyngeal sample collected midNovember 2021 revealed an atypical combination that did not correspond to the pattern of the Delta variant involved in almost all SARSCoV2 infections at that time and later to Omicron as well Colson saidRespiratory samples collected from seven other SARSCoV2positive patients living in the same geographical area exhibited the same combination of mutations screened by qPCR They were two adults and five children below 15 years of ageThe respiratory samples from these eight patients were sent to university hospital institute Mediterranee Infection for SARSCoV2 genome sequencing as recommended by French public health authoritiesFurther tests led to SARSCoV2 genotype identification The analysis revealed 46 mutations and 37 deletions resulting in 30 amino acid substitutions and 12 deletions Fourteen amino acid substitutions including N501Y and E484K and 9 deletions are located in the spike proteinThis genotype pattern led to create a new Pangolin lineage named B16402 which is a phylogenetic sister group to the old B1640 lineage renamed B16401 Both lineages differ by 25 nucleotide substitutions and 33 deletions the study saidThe mutation set and phylogenetic position of the genomes obtained here indicate based on our previous definition a new variant we named IHU Colson saidHe added that the data is another example of the unpredictability of the emergence of SARSCoV2 variantsOverall these observations show once again the unpredictability of the emergence of new SARSCoV2 variants and their introduction from abroad and they exemplify the difficulty to control such introduction and subsequent spread Colson saidSARSCoV2 variants have become a major virological epidemiological and clinical concern particularly with regard to the risk of escape from vaccineinduced immunity The emergence of the new variant warrants the increase of genomic surveillance of SARSCoV2 he said