RESUMEN
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first detected in December 2019, and shortly after pandemic has been declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) due to its unstoppable global spread. Considerable amount of effort has beenput around the World in order to develop a safe and effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. Inactivated and RNA vaccines have already passed phase three studies showing sufficient efficacy and safety, respectively. Nowadays, there is a noticeable dominance of SARS-CoV-2 variants with various mutations over the wild type SARS-CoV-2. However, there is no report showing the efficacy of these vaccines on these variants. This case study describes a thirty-eight-year-old male reported to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 alpha variant following two doses of inactive CoronaVac administration with a protective level of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies. The variant analysis of the virus reported to be positive for N501Y mutation.This is the first case in the literature demonstrating that inactive SARS-CoV-2 vaccine might have a lower efficacy on alpha variant.Copyright © 2022 Cenk Serhan Ozverel et al., published by Sciendo.
RESUMEN
Emergence of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants has been an important source of concern since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Variants of Concern (VoC) carry important mutations especially in the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein that render the virus more transmissible. The N501Y mutation was first defined in the B.1.1.7. lineage that was identified in the UK and is also shared with other VoCs including P.1 and B.1.351 lineages from Brazil and South Africa. Variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been reported to affect transmissibility of the virus, have an impact on vaccine effectiveness and evade viral diagnostic tests. In this context, monitoring of the circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants bearing mutations represents a major requirement for a public health response in a country. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 positive samples bearing the N501Y mutation in Northern Cyprus between November 2020 and March 2021. All samples that were identified as SARS-CoV-2 positive between these dates were screened for the presence of N501Y mutation by reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) technique. Our results indicate that while no samples that contain the N501Y mutation was detected in November and December 2020, the proportion of N501Y bearing variants significantly increased from January through March 2021 (45.2%-69.2%) and became the dominant lineage in Northern Cyprus. These results highlight an alarming situation that require strict governmental measures to minimize COVID-19 transmission, morbidity, and mortality in the country.
RESUMEN
A reverse transcriptase-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is regarded as the most sensitive method available and is being used for screening procedure for all incoming passengers to Northern Cyprus for SARS-CoV-2. This study investigated the compatibility of two different RT-qPCR methodologies Diagnovital® and Bio-Speedy® by re-analyzing the previously confirmed positive samples. A total of 43 previously confirmed positive samples were re-analyzed by two different commercially available SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR kits. Only 23.5% of positive samples detected by Diagnovital® RT-qPCR kit were detected by Bio-Speedy® detection kit. In conclusion, adoption of Diagnovital® RT-qPCR kit detecting two regions of SARS-CoV-2 genome in our laboratories enabled the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in asymptomatic cases with higher sensitivity and contributed to the prevention of viral transmission within the country. The timely detection of infection in asymptomatic individuals may be the key to a successful fight against the COVID- 19 pandemic. © 2021 Gulten Tuncel, Mahmut Cerkez Ergoren, Buket Baddal, Pinar Tulay, Ayse Arikan, Emrah Guler, Cenk Serhan Ozverel, H. Kaya Suer, Murat Sayan, Tamer Sanlidag, published by Sciendo 2021.