COVID-19 antibody treatments aren't as effective for new variants

The study published in Biochemistry journal is the first to explore the effects of multiple mutations in the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants. The findings can help scientists better understand the properties of current and new variants.

Nearly half of 4.3 million variant sequences that contain any of these three mutations have all three occurring together. Although individual mutations have both beneficial and deleterious effects, when they come together, these effects get cancelled out, leading to improved selection of the mutations together.

The researchers found the three mutations performed very distinct and specific roles that contributed toward improving the virus fitness and build the case for their positive selection, even though individual mutations have deleterious effects that make them prone to negative selection. When these mutations come together, the deleterious effects are mitigated due to the presence of compensatory effects.

Hence, the authors concluded that the collective effect of these mutations is far more advantageous for virus fitness than the individual mutations and the presence of multiple mutations improves the selection of individual mutations.