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Biotech / Medical : Biotech Valuation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Biomaven who wrote (9937)	1/6/2004 7:19:05 PM
From: Henry Niman	Respond to of 52153

Here's the followup >>Dr. Yuen said that a genetic sequencing of samples from the man in Guangzhou who has SARS had found that the main "spike" protein was exactly identical, down to the last amino acid, to the new sublineage of the virus found in civet cats. Dr. Guan Yi, another Hong Kong University microbiologist, said that it was too soon to say whether the new sublineage was any more or less infectious or lethal in people than the SARS virus that spread last spring.<< Although some are still questioning the seasonality of SARS, the above quotes certainly sound like a re-run of last year. Although there was some polymorphisms among the 3 civet isolates at GenBank, the isolates were clearly closer to each other than to the human isolates. Using the three civet sequences to define human mutations, the S gene had 13 positions that had change in all human isolates and another 9 positions that had changed in almost all human isolates. Thus it looked like the 9 positions had not quite had a chance to mutate when the initial SARS CoVs were isolated in Guangzhou last February, but by the time the virus emerged from the Metropole Hotel, all 22 positions in the S gene had mutated. Interestingly, 99.4% of 3768 nucleotides in the S gene would also be approximately 22 differences. Thus, it seems that the isolate for this season's index case has reset the mutation clock, and as of Dec 16, 2003 all or almost all of these 22 positions were back to the wild type sequence defined by the consensus civet sequence. The 100% identity quoted above may be for a civet slightly different than those deposited at GenBank, but they are probably pretty close and the sequence of the index case is revealing a replay of the SARS CoV genome at the beginning of last season's SARS outbreak.

To: Biomaven who wrote (9937)	1/6/2004 7:54:32 PM
From: Henry Niman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 52153

Here's the followup to the followup: >>Professor Yuen Kwok Yung, head of the microbiology department of the Hong Kong University's medical faculty, said recent samples of the Sars virus taken from the cats showed more similarities to the human form than samples taken from the animals during the last outbreak. 'There is some genetic evidence that this new virus from the civet cats... is moving towards the human Sars coronavirus,' said Prof Yuen, whose team identified the civet cat as the prime suspect of the source of the Sars epidemic in May last year. 'We fear that may mean higher transmissibility to humans. That looks a little sinister,' he told Reuters in an interview.<< Maybe the clock is not quite back to zero. Do any of the animal sequences have the 29 nt deletion? straitstimes.asia1.com.sg JAN 7, 2004 New virus may jump more easily to humans HONG KONG - Recent genetic studies in Hong Kong have detected small but significant changes in the Sars virus isolated from civet cats that suggest it may jump more easily to humans, a leading microbiologist said yesterday.