Genome of New Virus That Infected Brazilian Is Sequenced in São Paulo

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Adolfo Lutz Institute, together with the Institute of Tropical Medicine of the University of São Paulo and Oxford University, have sequenced the genome of the new coronavirus that infected a Brazilian man.

The research was supported by the APESP (São Paulo State Research Support Foundation) and the Medical Research Council, in the United Kingdom. The CADDE project, a partnership between the two countries for the study of arboviruses, develops techniques to monitor epidemics in real-time.

By “spelling out” the letters that make up the “sentences” of the Sars-CoV-2 genome, determining how the virus has spread and even detecting mutations that can influence its spread is possible.

The coronavirus case was first tested by the Albert Einstein Israeli Hospital and confirmed by the Adolfo Lutz Institute on February 26th. The patient had been in northern Italy, which recorded an outbreak of the disease. The preliminary examination is available at the Virological.org website, which is available to scientists from all over the world.

According to Ester Sabino, director of the Institute of Tropical Medicine at USP, the sooner the virus sequences are published, the more we will know about the epidemic. The team in São Paulo discovered the sequencing in only two days.

The mutations identified may imply adapting diagnostic tests. Moreover, they are critical for the production of vaccines, since the antibodies produced must be linked to all viruses in the species, regardless of the strains.

“Italy has no sequencing set. When you place the sequencing, you’ll have an idea of where the outbreak in the country started. Let’s say there’s a new case in São Paulo; the sequencing can help determine if a person picked up the virus on the plane, at the airport or elsewhere,” Sabino says.

The sequencing was performed with a handheld device. “Since the 1970s, genomic sequencing has been performed. The sequencer is smaller than a cell phone and connected to a computer through a USB cord. It sequences the flow cell, as if it were a chip where the nanopores are placed. Inside it, we place the sequences of the sample that will be read as it goes through the pores,” says Jaqueline Goes de Jesus, of the Institute of Tropical Medicine.

Studies show that the genome identified in Brazil has differences from that of Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic and that two mutations are close to the German strain, diagnosed in Munich.

“International groups have taken 15 days to submit the Covid-19 sequencing, which emphasizes the scientific importance of Brazilian research,” says José Henrique Germann, state secretary of health.