The E484K mutation in the spike protein of SRAS-COV 2, which the scientists have called Erik, has set off the alarms of the international scientific community.

As described in his personal Facebook profile, Dr. Daniel García Rivera, director of the Laboratorio de Sintesis Química Molecular of the University of Havana and member of the collective group of authors of the Soberanas vaccines, any mutation that makes the virus enter faster or escape from our antibodies(inmunoescape) Is a very worrisome mutation and Erik is one of the most worrisome variants we have observed.

¨Its intention is not to kill us, but to prevent us from eliminating the virus¨, the specialist explained that chemically it does it in the simplest way there is, by changing a negative charge on the surface of the molecule for a positive one.

Thus, our antibodies, which expect to see a negative charge, which attracts them, because that is the way they were created for, are et with a positive charge that repels them.

As a result, the neutralizing characters of the antibodies decreases. García Rivera highlighted that this mutation is found in variants detected in different places in the world, such as the Gamma variant in Brazil, the Beat in South Africa and the Alpha in the United Kingdom.

Recently in Lombardi, Italy, a sub-lineage was found in the Delta strain, which also incorporates the Erik mutation. This dangerous alliance could be very difficult to defeat.

The researcher states that Dr. Vicente Vérez Bencomo, director of the Finlay Vaccine Institute, when the Erik mutation joined the Alpha variant, announced that it could happen again. It´s called evolution, you have to live with it. And our vaccination strategies will also evolve.

Source: Gramma