Malta’s predominant coronavirus strain is a very common one found across the EU and the UK, genome testing of 10 local COVID-19 patients has indicated.
The conclusion stems from a study carried out by The Bio Arte Ltd, a scientific and research institute set up earlier this year at the Life Sciences Park in San Ġwann.
The research was done with the co-operation of Medical Laboratory Services at St James Hospital, Sliema, from where the samples were obtained.
Viral samples, known as isolates, taken from the 10 patients, were found to belong entirely to a strain known as ‘B1’, with a cluster of mutation common in all 10 cases.
“This lineage is very common in the EU, and has been deposited in the database mostly from the UK. It does not mean that it came from the UK because this lineage is also found elsewhere in the EU, but it is highly prevalent in the UK,” Manuel Biazzo, who serves as scientific director of The Bio Arte Ltd, said.
The viral isolates will now be published in a global database
The viral isolates will now be published in the global database of the National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), where they are freely accessible. Biazzo and fellow The Bio Arte director Christian Duchow noted that while each of the 10 isolates they studied had its own mutation, they all shared the same pattern of mutations.
Those mutations bore similarities to isolates deposited in Switzerland but were different to a cluster present in Rome and Siena, Italy.
The scientists said that further analysis is required to determine whether the viral mutations are effective or not.
This is our next step,” Biazzo said.
Their intention is to work with colleagues in Siena to publish a research paper internationally in the coming days, so that all their results would be scientifically explained and accessible.
Biazzo expressed his disappointment that this scientific research had not yet obtained local support (financially and in terms of further collaborations) and was entirely funded privately.
“I am happy that another private entity, like the Medical Laboratory Services at St James Hospital, joined us in this research activity and I hope that soon we can increase not only the number of virus isolates sequenced, but we can also enlarge, together with local pathologist Prof. Christian Scerri, our analysis to other key elements crucial for the outcome of a COVID-19 infection,” he said.
The Bio Arte laboratory at the Life Sciences Park in San Ġwann is to be officially inaugurated later next month.