China News Service, August 4th. According to a report from the Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK) on the 3rd, a research team composed of the University of Tokyo in Japan published the latest research on the delta variant of the new crown virus. Animal experiments have shown that the delta strain may be It is more likely to cause host disease than the original strain of the new coronavirus.
Data map: Medical staff in the intensive care unit of a medical center in Tarzana, California, are treating patients with new coronary pneumonia.
According to reports, this research was carried out by a team composed of Associate Professor Sato Yoshi, University of Tokyo Institute of Medical Sciences, and others.
The team recently published a preprinted paper awaiting peer review on the Internet, in which it introduced the research situation.
As we all know, there are multiple genetic mutations in the Delta strain.
The team focused on the "P681R" mutation, produced a virus containing the mutant gene, and used it to invade cultured cells to observe the response.
Previously, the medical community has discovered that after infection with the new coronavirus, the host cells near the infection site will collapse, fuse with each other, and agglomerate.
Through this experiment, Sato et al. found that the size of the clot produced by the virus with the "P681R" mutation was 2.7 times that of the original new coronavirus.
The team said that in general, the larger the cell clot, the more pathogenic the virus is.
Associate Professor Sato said: "Because of the existence of this mutation, the pathogenicity of the Delta mutant strain may be higher. We will continue to investigate the characteristics of the fresh mutant strain."