A group such as the University of Tokyo has announced the results of experiments on animals, etc., which may have a stronger ability to cause symptoms than conventional viruses, regarding the mutant virus of the new coronavirus, "Delta strain".
This research was published on the Internet as a "pre-reviewed paper" before being checked by a third party by a group of associate professors Kei Sato of the Institute of Medical Science, the University of Tokyo.
The group artificially created a virus with a mutation called "P681R" out of mutations in multiple genes in the "Delta strain" and infected cultured cells to investigate the reaction.
It is known that when infected with the new coronavirus, surrounding cells are broken and fused to form a mass, but as a result of experiments, it is said that this mutation produced an average of 2.7 times larger mass than the conventional virus. That is.
In addition, hamsters infected with the virus with this mutation were found to lose 4.7% to 6.9% more weight one week after infection than when infected with the conventional virus.
According to the group, the virus generally has a stronger ability to cause symptoms as the cell mass becomes larger. Yes, I want to clarify the characteristics of the new mutant strain as soon as possible. "