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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/25/use-of-antiviral-molnupiravir-evolution-covid-virus-mutations>
"An antiviral drug used to treat patients with Covid-19 may be causing
mutations in the virus and fuelling the evolution of new variants, scientists
have said.
Molnupiravir, which is also sold under the brand name Lagevrio, is designed to
mutate coronavirus to destruction, but researchers found evidence that the
virus can sometimes survive the treatment, leading to mutated versions that
occasionally spread to other people.
There is no evidence molnupiravir has produced more dangerous variants of
Covid, but scientists said the mutations increased the genetic diversity of the
virus in the wild and provided more options for future evolution.
“People have some concerns about molnupiravir and to some sense this makes
those more concrete,” said Dr Theo Sanderson, the lead author on the study and
a postdoctoral researcher at the Francis Crick Institute in London. “We know
these viruses can still be alive following a significant number of mutations
and they can still be transmissible in some cases.”
The findings are important for continuing assessments of the risks and benefits
of molnupiravir and other drugs in development that work in a similar way, the
researchers say.
Writing in the journal
Nature, the scientists describe numerous strands of
evidence that suggest molnupiravir can occasionally produce highly mutated but
viable forms of the Covid virus. The first sign emerged when the researchers
scoured global databases that containing more than 15m Covid genomes. The
scientists found hallmark mutations in viruses from 2022, after molnupiravir
was introduced. When the drug mutates the virus’s RNA, it increases the
proportion of specific mutations at certain regions of the genetic code.
As well as spotting signature mutations in Covid viruses obtained from
patients, the scientists found that these were more common in countries that
used the most molnupiravir, such as the UK, Australia, the US and Japan.
Further analyses found the hallmark mutations were more common in Covid virus
taken from older patients who awere more likely to be treated with the drug.
As a final piece of evidence, the scientists picked out a number of viral
samples in England that bore the signature mutations of molnupiravir and asked
the UK Health Security Agency which patients had been treated with the drug.
Sanderson said: “That number was much higher than you’d expect by chance, which
again suggests it’s due to molnupiravir.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
