Mumbai’s Kasturba Hospital to start genome sequencing

Kasturba Gandhi hospital, Byculla, will start genome sequencing of a few Covid-19 patients in the city to find out any possible presence of a mutation of Sars-Cov-2—the virus that causes Covid-19 — and understand its role in the transmission and spread of the infection

Kasturba Gandhi hospital, Byculla, will start genome sequencing of a few Covid-19 patients in the city to find out any possible presence of a mutation of Sars-Cov-2—the virus that causes Covid-19 — and understand its role in the transmission and spread of the infection. This will make Kasturba hospital the first civic-run hospital in the city to conduct genome sequencing on Covid-19.

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Recently, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) received approval from the central health department to commence genome sequencing at Kasturba Hospital. Alongside, a committee has also been formed to do undertake research on the microbiological characteristics of mutated strains of the virus. Dr Jayanthi S Shastri, in-charge of the hospital’s microbiology department, will head the programme.

Genome sequencing is a technique that involves analysing the genetic code of an organism and is done with the help of powerful computers.

Talking to HT, Dr Shastri said that samples will be collected from adults with atypical clinical presentations, children with Covid-19 infection, international passengers and patients who contracted the infection in clusters with high positivity rate.

“The in-house sequencing of samples will enable us to get results faster, which will enable rapid policy planning to take appropriate measures. Genome sequencing is required for medical preparedness in any outbreak of a disease,” she said. “Linking information of genome sequencing with patients’ data is essential for genome epidemiology for better understanding of disease like its progression, severity, transmissibility and therapeutics,” she added.

So far, on a weekly basis, BMC has been sending 50 random samples for genome sequencing of infected patients with travel history, belonging from hot spots and families with higher infection rates to National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. But health officials said it is time-consuming, which often delays delivery of the reports.

“We get reports of the samples from NIV after 15-20 days. Kasturba hospital has one of the advanced laboratories in India, so we decided to start the sequencing in the hospital,” said a health officer.

In March, the central health department confirmed the presence of ‘dual mutation’ of Sars-Cov-2 in the state. According to a press release by the government of India issued on March 24, “The analysis of samples from Maharashtra has revealed that compared to December 2020, there has been an increase in the fraction of samples with the E4840 and 1452R mutations. Such mutations confer immune escape and increased infectivity. These mutations have been found in about 15-20% of samples and do not match any previously catalogued VOC.”

In Mumbai, 22 positive samples out of 220 samples sent by BMC to NIV were detected with the United Kingdom strain of the novel coronavirus. But no other strain of the virus was detected in any other samples from Mumbai.

“With the starting of the sequencing in Kasturba Hospital, our dependence on NIV will decrease. On Monday, I will hold a meeting with the experts advising them to fasten the process,” said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC.

“Also, through the research, we would be able to understand how the presence of the new strain is affecting the pandemic. This can provide scientific insight if we are heading into the third wave of the pandemic,” he added.

All viruses constantly mutate into new versions or variants. The genetic changes happen as the virus makes new copies of itself to spread and thrive. Most are inconsequential, but a few variants can make the virus more infectious.

Dr Lancelot Pinto, a pulmonologist and an epidemiologist said, “Variants are expected to evolve when a highly transmissible virus moves rapidly through a host population. Such new variants of the coronavirus could have escape mutations which help the virus evade the body’s immune system, thereby conferring the virus with a survival advantage. Escape mutations in the spike protein could result in infections among individuals who had existing antibodies to earlier strains of the virus”

When asked about the presence of the mutated strains in the recently sent sample to NIV, he said, “We have found a few UK strains but the number of double mutations has declined since March. However, I don’t have the aggregated data at present.”