OREANDA-NEWS. As Izvestia reported with reference to the publication of the results of the study, Russian scientists described the case of a patient in whose body the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus acquired 18 new mutations.

It is noted that changes in the virus were found in a 47-year-old woman with stage four lymphoma, who contracted the coronavirus in April, was regularly tested for COVID-19, and her test results were positive until September 9.

For the original version, scientists took the coronavirus genome in a sample of a patient's smear, from which, presumably, a woman was infected. After comparing the materials, experts concluded that the virus acquired 18 new mutations in her body, including two in the S-protein gene, identical to those previously found in Danish minks.

According to Konstantin Krutovsky, Professor of the Department of Genomics and Bioinformatics of the Siberian Federal University, Professor of the University of Göttingen, mutations partially coincide with those that were previously observed during the evolution of the virus in other patients with suppressed immunity, and with those that arose in the "British" version.

At the same time, he emphasized that it was in this Russian work that it was convincingly shown for the first time that the acquisition of a large number of mutations is the result of a long finding of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in one organism.

At the same time, the scientist noted that conclusions about the spread of the new "Russian" strain are premature, since only one case has been described.