Neutralization of Variant Under Investigation B.1.617.1 With Sera of BBV152 Vaccinees
Pragya D. Yadav, Gajanan Sapkal, Priya Abraham, Raches Ella, Gururaj Deshpande, Deepak Y. Patil, Dimpal A. Nyayanit, Nivedita Gupta, Rima R. Sahay, Anita M. Shete, Samiran Panda, Balram Bhargava, Viswanathan Mohan
Abstract
To the Editor—The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants in places where the virus is uncontained poses a global threat from the perspective of public health and vaccine efficacy. Peng et al [1] recently reported on the increased transmissibility with the newly emerged Variant of Concern (VOC) (20C/S:452R and 20C/S:452R) with the L452R mutation in San Francisco. We report the immunological characteristics of a Variant under Investigation (VUI) B.1.617.1, playing a critical role in the current surge of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the western state of Maharashtra, India. Several SARS-CoV-2 variants—B.1.1.7, B.1.351, and B.1.1.28.1—have been reported in India during 2021 [2, 3]. We had sequenced 146 nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs of COVID-19 cases [4]. Among these, 15 sequences had a combination of L452R and E484Q mutations, which raised concern as both are found in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein. However, the combined effect of these mutations is still unknown.