New COVID-19 “Mexican Variant” Identified: Increasingly Spreading Across North America

COVID Mexican Variant

The Mexican variant is rapidly spreading in North America, covering over 50% of viruses in the region and showing a spread rate similar to the ‘British variant.’

It has recently become prominent in Mexico and, similarly to other variants, presents a mutation in the Spike protein of the coronavirus. The “Mexican variant” was identified by a research group of the University of Bologna.

A research group of the Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology of the University of Bologna analyzed more than one million SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences. This analysis led to the identification of a new variant that, over the past weeks, has been spreading mostly in Mexico but has also been found in Europe. Their paper published in the Journal of Medical Virology presented the so-called “Mexican variant,” whose scientific name is T478K. Like other COVID-19 strains, this presents a mutation in the Spike protein, which allows coronaviruses to attach to and penetrate their targeted cells.

“This variant has been increasingly spreading among people in North America, particularly in Mexico. To date, this variant covers more than 50% of the existing viruses in this area. The rate and speed of the spread recall those of the ‘British variant,'” explains Federico Giorgi, who is the study coordinator and a professor at the Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology of the University of Bologna. “The mutation of the Spike protein is structurally located in the region of interaction with human receptor ACE2. Coronaviruses attach to this receptor to infect cells, thus spreading the infection with more efficacy.”

The researchers started from the analysis of almost 1.2 million sequenced samples of the SARS-CoV-2 genome found in international databases until April 27, 2021. The new T478K variant was detected in 11435 samples. This is double the number of samples that presented the same variant just a month earlier. Such an increase since the beginning of 2021 alarmed the researchers.

The “Mexican variant” spreads evenly across males and females and age ranges. This variant represents 52.8% of all sequenced coronaviruses in Mexico, whereas in the United States it shows up only in 2.7% of the sequenced samples. As concerns Europe, the “Mexican variant” has spread feebly in Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. In Italy it is virtually non-existent with only 4 reported cases.

The mutation characterizing this COVID variant is located in a region of the Spike protein that is responsible for the interaction with the human receptor ACE2: this is the mechanism allowing coronaviruses to access the cells. Similar mutations are common to all variants that have been at the center of attention in the past months. Indeed, recent coronavirus variants stand out for their high infection rates, which made them pervasive in many areas of the world.

Researchers tested the action of T478K Spike protein with in silico simulations and found out that this mutated protein can alter the superficial electrostatic charge. Consequently, it can change not only the interaction with the ACE2 human protein but also with the antibodies of the immune system and thus hinder drug efficacy.

“Thanks to the great amount of data available in international databases, we can hold an almost real-time control over the situation by monitoring the spread of coronavirus variants across different geographical areas,” concludes Giorgi. “Keeping up this effort in the next months will be crucial to act promptly and with efficient means.”

“Preliminary report on SARS-CoV-2 Spike mutation T478K” is the title of the study published in the Journal of Medical Virology. The authors are Simone di Giacomo, Daniele Mercatelli, Amir Rakhimov, and Federico Giorgi, all from the Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology of the University of Bologna.

Reference: “Preliminary report on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Spike mutation T478K” by Simone Di Giacomo, Daniele Mercatelli, Amir Rakhimov and Federico M. Giorgi, 5 May 2021, Journal of Medical Virology.
DOI: 10.1002/jmv.27062

10 Comments on "New COVID-19 “Mexican Variant” Identified: Increasingly Spreading Across North America"

  1. Why is it acceptable to call this the “Mexican variant,” while Trump was criticized for calling the original strain(s) the “Wuhan flu?”

    • Because both the healthcare system and public health have been infected with a much lethal virus: dirty rotten politics. The demoncrat$ push a narrative at whatever cost but they could care any less about truth and safety. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be censoring effective treatments against covid-19 and we wouldn’t have millions of undocumented people pouring into our country in the middle of pandemic bringing in more disease including new variants.

  2. hopefully it takes out democrats the open borders crowd

  3. The “variants” are being caused by the “vaccine”

    And whomever writes this nonsense is just a propaganda mouthpiece.

    • Clyde Spencer | June 16, 2021 at 7:34 am | Reply

      Do you have any evidence for your bizarre claim?

      • Yeah, highly defamed, deplatformed who’s reputable career and personal life is now destroyed for revealing the real plague (corruption at the highest level including Fau cci) Dr.JudyAMikovits.com

    • Variants are mutations. Mutations occur as a result of errors in the reproduction process. Uncontrolled reproduction allows for more mutations, not vaccines.

  4. Why not just put the Chinese flag isntead of the Mexican flag to let people know whos really the originators of covid 19!!!!

  5. Vandana Gupta | July 8, 2021 at 3:25 pm | Reply

    The mutations are not random. They are occurring at specific locations on the spike protein, which means the vaccinated are contributing to the variants. These vaccines do not stop transmission so everyone can still get infected including the vaccinated. This is the theory behind what Dr. Bossche explains about the variants.

  6. My family just came back from Mexico and we all got covid. Not sure if the variant. The four older of us are fully vaccinated (Pfizer) and only one of the younger ones got it.
    I’d like to understand why the vaccine was so ineffective. We had the second does in April and it’s now July. Very disappointed.

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