Covid-19: Investigation of Important Mutations and their Effect on Vaccine Efficacy

Unknown pneumonia caused by acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (nCoV/SARS-CoV-2 2019) started in Wuhan, China. Compared to other corona virus infections, this variant is more contagious and its genome encodes all the proteins necessary for infection and reproduction. The most important structural proteins of this virus are spike glycoprotein, envelope protein, membrane protein and nucleocapsid protein. Mutations accrued to these proteins, especially to the spike protein, played an important role in the creation of new variants. For example, E484K, L452R, S477N and F486V mutations are among the important mutations that can be considered when designing vaccines based on spike protein in the future. These mutations lead to the variants with new and different characteristics, and for this reason, the vaccine production process for this virus has faced many challenges. Various companies all over the world entered the competition to make vaccines, and finally, by producing different types of vaccines, this disease was controlled tolerably. But new mutations in the future could still lead to diverse variants with resistance to existing vaccines, and for this reason, societies and governments would face serious challenges.

Based on these interpretations, possible emergence of new variants in the future could not be denied. However, prediction of the location of these mutations in not possible though. as a result, it is important to conduct research on the emerging variants, to be prepared for new possible challenges in the future.