Amman- 4 January 2021

Dr. Walid Adnan Al-Zyoud, an Associate Professor of Molecular Pathology in the Department of Biomedical Engineering – School of Applied Medical Sciences (SAMS)at the German University of Jordan (GJU), and Hazem Iskandar Haddad, the head of the Genomic Training and Biological Risk Unit at the Princess Haya Biotechnology Center at the Jordan University of Science and Technology, analyzed the mutational sensitivity of four mutations that appeared in the spike protein of coronavirus for sequenced samples of patients in Jordan, which were withdrawn between March and April 2012, the most important of which is the D614G substitute mutation in Jordan that was 62% at that time and it is now almost 99%. Other mutations were the deletion at the Y144 boom, the D1139Y, and the G1167S.

The results of the research that have been published in a specialized scientific journal, included in the Scopus Q2 database as shown in the link below, showed that the D-to-G substitution in the D614G mutation had ensured a change of D a coil amino acid to G extracellular amino acid, resulting in a slight possible improvement in the ability of coronavirus to interact with its receptors extracellularly or on the surface of human cells; this may have led to an increased spread of the virus in Jordan over the past eight months.

Al-Zyoud and Haddad stressed that studying mutations such as D614G and others deeply and periodically in Jordan is necessary to control the pandemic in terms of the interaction of coronavirus with antibodies of the immune system or the effect of vaccine effectiveness against it. The experts added that in the coming years, we are likely to see more mutations in coronavirus unintentionally or intentionally by CRISPR technology, which in turn can lead to an increase in mortality if these mutations can increase its spread, and the experts praised the efficiency of new vaccines so far produced by mRNA technology.

 

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