My US based friend,a scientist Ramesh Swamy informs me that a US researcher has found: “the #COVID19 strain in Indi… https://t.co/OuzSukFEnW — Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) 1585063771000

COVID-19 has not only caused a worldwide disruption but has also infected large numbers of people around the world. While scientists are trying their best to find a cure or vaccine to the disease, a report on the study of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV2) strain is doing rounds on Twitter. Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Rajya Sabha MP recently tweeted that his US based friends have informed him that the COVID-19 strain in India is a less virulent mutation. The tweet also stated that the Indian immune system can more effectively target it.After this a lot of people questioned the authenticity of the tweet and also trolled him for the same. In response to the trolls, many people tweeted the link to the report which is a ‘Comparative analyses of SAR-CoV2 genomes from different geographical locations’.The below given findings are from a preliminary report which has not been peer-reviewed. These abstracts are directly taken from the report.The ongoing pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2).Various researchers from Translational Bioinformatics Group, International Center for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology (ICGEB) and Department of Biochemistry, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, performed an integrated sequence-based analysis of SARS-CoV2 (2019 virus) genomes from different geographical locations in order to identify its unique features absent in SARS-CoV (2003 virus) and other related coronavirus family genomes, conferring unique infection, facilitation of transmission, virulence and immunogenic features to the virus.Systematic gene level mutational analysis of the genomes has enabled the researchers to identify several unique features of the SARS-CoV2 genome, which includes a unique mutation in the spike surface glycoprotein in the Indian SARS-CoV2, absent in other strains studied there.They collected SARS-CoV2 genomes from different geographical origins mainly from India, Italy, USA, Nepal and Wuhan. To understand the variations that are occurring with the geographical area the researchers analyzed Indian, Italian, USA, Nepal SARS-CoV2 genomes (query genomes) compared with Wuhan SARS-CoV2 genome. It was observed that all the genomes shares ~99% similarity with Wuhan (SARS-CoV2) genome. However, interestingly we also observed that each genome has unique mutations- except the genome from Nepal which shares 100% similarity with the Wuhan genome.To gain further insights into host responses to viral infection, they predict that antiviral host-miRNAs (microRNA) may be controlling the viral pathogenesis. The analysis reveals nine host miRNAs which can potentially target SARS-CoV2 genes. Interestingly, the nine miRNAs do not have targets in SARS and MERS genomes. Also, hsa-miR-27b is the only unique miRNA which has a target gene in the Indian SARS-CoV2 genome.In conclusion, we can’t make a firm claim whether the Indian COVID-19 strain is weaker or not. Only further research and deep studies can complement the several experiments going on around the world, to study COVID-19.