The SARS-CoV-2 virus is undergoing an unexpected pattern of changes that are expanding its genetic diversity due to an antiviral treatment often used to treat COVID-19.
An international team of experts analyzed around 15 million SARS-CoV-2 sequences to identify exactly how the coronavirus has changed over time. They have issued this warning.
While it is true that viruses mutate naturally, the research found mutational events that appeared extremely different from the typical pattern of change. Almost a third of these peculiar changes were related to people who had taken the antiviral molnupiravir.
This drug, created by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, reduces the body’s viral load by causing changes in the viral genome during replication, many of which damage or kill the virus.
However, the research team has discovered that certain alterations induced by molnupiravir do not produce the desired result, but instead produce persistent mutations.
The study revealed tiny clusters of these mutations, indicating their transmission between patients. Currently, researchers have said there is no evidence linking these mutational fingerprints to any recognized variation of concern.
The research was conducted by Dr. Theo Sanderson, a geneticist affiliated with the Francis Crick Institute located in London, England, along with his colleagues.
According to Sanderson, “COVID-19 is still having a significant effect on human health and some people are having difficulty clearing the virus, so it is important that we develop drugs that aim to reduce the duration of infection.
“But our evidence shows that a specific antiviral drug, molnupiravir, also causes new mutations, increasing the genetic diversity of the surviving viral population.
“Our findings are useful for the ongoing evaluation of the risks and benefits of molnupiravir treatment. The possibility of antiviral-induced persistent mutations should be considered for the development of new drugs that work in a similar way.”
Dr. Christopher Ruis, a geneticist affiliated with the University of Cambridge in England, made an additional contribution as a co-author of the article.
“Molnupiravir is one of the many drugs used to fight COVID-19. It belongs to a class of drugs that can cause the virus to mutate so much that it is fatally weakened,” Ruis said. “But what we found is that in some patients, this process doesn’t kill all the viruses, and some mutated viruses can spread.”
“This is important to consider when evaluating the overall benefits and risks of molnupiravir and similar drugs,” he added.
The journal Nature published the full findings of the scientific study.
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