Mutation found in MERS virus in Korea
By Kim Se-jeong
The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) which swept Korea last year underwent a mutation not found in the strains of MERs samples collected in Saudi Arabia, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), Friday.
The mutation may have affected the virulence of the virus as it has shown different patterns of spreading and infection in Korea from those in Saudi Arabia, such as an unusually fast human-to-human transmission.
While investigators suspected a mutation at the time of the epidemic, health authorities denied it.
This is the first official confirmation of the mutation.
“Spike glycoprotein genes of the MERs virus strains from South Korea were closely related to those of strains from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. However, the virus strains from South Korea showed strain-specific variations,” chief author Kim Dae-won reported in a journal published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month.
Spike glycoprotein, found on the surface of a virus, is believed to play a critical role in virus proliferation in human cells. Researchers of the KCDC analyzed spike glycoprotein genes from samples of eight patients here and compared them with those obtained in Saudi Arabia.
However, the research team said it cannot conclude that the mutation was responsible for the fast spread of infection, saying it needs more study.
A KCDC official said the center is conducting a separate test on MERS patients. “We’re running gene sequencing on 32 patients, including five super spreaders. Today’s finding is meaningful, but more research is needed to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the mutation and its effects on the epidemic.”
An anonymous professor at Catholic University lauded the team’s findings. “Not fully, but this finding can hint at why the MERS virus spread so fast and killed so many people in Korea.”
The virus infected 186 people and killed 36 in the span of two months, with another two dying later. On Dec. 23, the government officially declared Korea to be free of the deadly respiratory disease.
One of the eight samples tested was that of the first patient, a 67-year-old man who contracted the virus during his trip to Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia for two weeks during April and May.
He showed symptoms on May 11, but his case was confirmed to be MERs on May 20. In between, he visited several hospitals, infecting his family members, other patients and their families.