SARS-CoV-2 Kappa variant

Kappa variant is a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It is one of the three sublineages of Pango lineage B.1.617. The SARS-CoV-2 Kappa variant is also known as lineage B.1.617.1 and was first detected in India in December 2020. By the end of March 2021, the Kappa sub-variant accounted for more than half of the sequences being submitted from India. On 1 April 2021, it was designated a Variant Under Investigation (VUI-21APR-01) by Public Health England. It was considered a previously circulating variant of interest by the World Health Organization on March 2022.

Mutations

+ Gene Nucleotide Amino acid ORF1ab C3457T - C4957T T1567I A11201G T3646A G17523T M5753I A20396G K6711R P314L G1129C M1352I K2310R S2312A Spike T21895C - T21895C E154K T22917G L452R G23012C E484Q D614G C23604G P681R Q1071H N G28881T R203M D377Y M I82S ORF3a C25469T S26L ORF1a T1567I T3646A ORF7a T27638C V82A Source: covariants.org and PHE Technical Briefing 9 The Kappa variant has three notable alterations in the amino-acid sequences, all of which are in the virus's spike protein code.

The three notable substitutions are: L452R, E484Q, P681R L452R. The substitution at position 452, a leucine-to-arginine substitution. This exchange confers stronger affinity of the spike protein for the ACE2 receptor along with decreased recognition capability of the immune system. E484Q. The substitution at position 484, a glutamic acid-to-glutamine substitution. This alteration confers the variant stronger binding potential to Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, as well as better ability to evade hosts' immune systems. P681R. The substitution at position 681, a proline-to-arginine substitution.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) also list a fourth spike mutation of interest: D614G. This is a substitution at position 614, an aspartic acid-to-glycine substitution. Other variants which have the D614G mutation include the Beta and Delta variants, and the mutation is associated with increased infectivity.

The two other mutations which can be found closer to either end of the spike region are T95I and Q1071H.

History International detection The Kappa variant was first identified in India in December 2020.

By 11 May 2021, the WHO Weekly Epidemiological Update had reported 34 countries with detections of the subvariant, however by 25 May 2021, the number of countries had risen to 41. , the United Kingdom had detected a total of 418 confirmed cases of the SARS-CoV-2 Kappa variant. On 6 June 2021, a cluster of 60 cases identified in the Australian city of Melbourne were linked to the Kappa variant. According to GISAID in July 2021, India had submitted more genetic samples of the Kappa variant than any other country.

Community transmission A Public Health England technical briefing paper of 22 April 2021 reported that 119 cases of the sub-variant had been identified in England with a concentration of cases in the London area and the regions of the North West and East of England. Of the 119 cases, 94 had an established link to travel, 22 cases were still under investigation, but the remaining 3 cases were identified as not having any known link to travel.

On 2 June, the Guardian reported that at least 1 in 10 of the cases in the outbreak in the Australian state of Victoria were due to contact with strangers and that community transmission was involved with clusters of the Kappa variant. However, infectious disease expert, Professor Greg Dore, said that the Kappa variant was behaving "the same as we've seen before" in relation to other variants in Australia.

Vaccine efficacy

A study conducted by Oxford University in June 2021 said that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were effective against the Kappa and Delta variants, suggesting that the current vaccines offer protection against these variants, although with slight reductions in neutralization.

Covaxin was also found to be effective against the Kappa variant (B.1.617.1) as for other variants.

The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine was also found to be effective against the Kappa variant, albeit with a 3.3-3.4 fold reduction in neutralization.

Statistics + Cases by country (Updated as of 13 September 2021) GISAIDCountryConfirmed casesCollection date4,43726 May 202154531 May 202130824 June 202137212 May 20212068 June 202112815 June 202110222 June 20215913 May 20212831 May 20212712 June 2021277 May 2021620 April 20211620 May 20211713 May 20211318 April 2021717 May 20211227 April 2021104 May 202194 May 20211924 May 2021810 April 202172 June 20211518 June 20211123 May 20211026 April 2021519 May 2021517 April 2021520 April 2021729 April 202144 May 2021425 April 202142 June 202148 April 202141 June 2021229 April 2021210 March 202129 May 202123 April 202121 August 2021123 April 202116 April 2021119 April 202126 April 2021126 April 2021126 March 202112 May 202115 May 2021122 April 2021316 April 202116 May 2021112 March 2021210 February 202122 January 2021114 April 2021111 April 2021114 April 2021216 May 2021121 April 202118 November 2021World (58 countries)Total: 6,476Total as of 13 September 2021

SARS-CoV-2 Kappa variant

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