IIT-M researchers study different Covid 19 variants

CHENNAI: Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) researchers are studying the high transmission rate and mortality of SARS-CoV-2, the specific strain of Coronavirus that causes Covid-19.Using computational tools, the team also studied its two close variants - SARS-CoV and NL63, said a statement from the institute to understand how different strains cause symptoms of varying degrees of severity.

The team set out to understand how the spike proteins of these different virus strains are interacting with particular receptors of human cells and how this interaction is affecting their ability to spread and severity of the disease. 

The scientists set out to find the reason behind the mildness and severity of disease caused by these viruses. The study found that SARS-CoV is more severe than SARS-CoV-2 whereas NL63 shows milder symptoms than SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. 

The research findings of this study have been published in the peer-reviewed international journal ‘Proteins: Structure, Function, Bioinformatics.’The research team was led by M Michael Gromiha, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Madras. The team collaborated with professor PK Ponnuswamy for this study.