According to a Japanese study, the lambda variant of the coronavirus from South America is not only more contagious, but also more resistant to antibodies than all others. Is it time to start being afraid of him?
Lambda variant of coronavirus has succeeded in supplanting all other strains in Peru in a year
C.37. Andean variant of the coronavirus. Or just a lambda option. It was first infected in Peru in August 2020, but relatively little is still known about this strain. This makes a recent study by Japanese scientists all the more valuable. One of the main discoveries made by the group of researchers is that they managed to find three new dangerous mutations that contain the spike protein of the lambda variant.
One of them provides this strain of coronavirus with greater resistance to antibodies compared to its other variants and, as a result, less effective neutralization. In other words, the lambda variant is better able to evade the immune response, so even vaccinated and recovered people are much less protected from it.
The other two mutations increase the contagiousness of the lambda variant, making it much more infectious than other strains. The results of the research by Japanese scientists have been published as a preprint and have not yet been peer-reviewed.
The rapid spread of the lambda variant
However, the results obtained are already helping to understand why the lambda variant is rapidly spreading across South America. Currently, about 90 percent of Peruvians infected with the coronavirus are infected with this particular strain. In Chile, it accounts for one in three new infections. The lambda variant managed to reach Europe: isolated cases of infection with it were observed in Spain, Italy, Great Britain and Germany. To date, this strain has been found in about 30 countries.
Provided by Deutsche Welle
So far, the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the lambda variant as “of interest” or “observed variant”. This group includes strains of coronavirus that are leading to increased cases of the disease, are found in several countries and need to be closely monitored.
However, according to the Japanese research group, the lambda variant meets all the criteria to be included in the list of “of concern” strains. The authors urge WHO to change the classification of the lambda variant, arguing that it meets all the requirements for this: it has increased infectiousness and resistance to antibodies – like the delta variant found in India, which WHO classifies as “of concern”.
Will the lambda variant displace the delta strain?
Whether the lambda variant is more dangerous than the delta variant, which is currently spreading rapidly in Europe, and whether it will succeed in becoming the dominant variant, displacing the delta variant, is not yet clear – this requires further study. However, one of the study's authors, Kei Sato of the University of Tokyo, warns that the potential danger posed by the C.37 strain should be taken seriously. The lambda variant may pose a “potential threat to human society,” the Reuters news agency quoted the scientist as saying.
Lambda accounts for about 90 percent of coronavirus infections in Peru
How quickly this option can spread and become dominant can be seen in the example of Peru. “In December, we had only 200 cases of lambda infection, by the end of March it was already half of all samples in Lima, and now more than 80 percent of infected people nationwide are infected with it,” microbiologist Pablo Tsukayama said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio station. He studied this option for several months. After researching the genome of the virus, Tsukayama and his team at the University of Cayetano Heredia in Lima found that the lambda variant “managed to become dominant in Peru in a very short time.”
At the same time, this strain quickly replaced all other mutations, which are currently still classified by WHO as more dangerous, and even prevailed over P.1, a gamma variant that was first discovered in neighboring Brazil.
Delta variant, lambda variant … Which strain will be next?
Pablo Tsukayama is convinced that the lambda strain will not be the last variant of the coronavirus to hit Latin America and the whole world. “It is likely that new options will appear in Latin America in the coming months. They will not necessarily be more dangerous, but definitely more infectious,” the scientist warns.
The emergence of new variants and their spread – the way that viruses use in order to survive, is well known to scientists. Initially, the original type of virus spreads rapidly, then the pathogen mutates in an attempt to survive. Until now, the coronavirus has used the same strategy in the formation of new variants: to become more infectious and bypass the immune defenses. And this strategy is easy to explain: as the number of vaccinated and recovered people increases, it becomes increasingly difficult for the coronavirus to find new “hosts”. Therefore, scientists, including Pablo Tsukayama, fear that in the coming months WHO will need more than one letter of the Greek alphabet to designate new variants of SARS-CoV-2.
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