​

The Eris and Pirola variants: Covid-19 Secrets and Mysteries

 

A less potent variant of the original Sars-CoV-2 virus may eventually replace more dangerous strains. The key to understanding such a strange turn of events is realizing that the virus is not trying to kill human beings. A virus needs living human cells to act as hosts…it cannot survive in dead tissue. Severe symptoms and death are accidental outcomes of a viral infection.

 

The primary objective of the virus is to reproduce. A virus replicates by invading a cell and issuing new commands (genetic codes) to its reproductive system. The host cell uses these genetic codes and genetic material from the host to make copies of the virus. Occasionally the reproduction system is confused by the new commands and the system creates a slightly different design. Most of the new viral designs fail to survive, but on vey rare occasions, the new version is better than the previous design. If the changed virus succeeds and its numbers grow, the improved version will begin to dominate. The result is a successful variant.

 

The Eris variant, which is currently the focus of the media, has acquired some troubling new characteristics. Sixteen mutations to the stem section of the virus may improve its potential to infect upper respiratory cells; however, there is very limited research regarding any dangerous effects. The Nowcast software program tracks the percentage of variants comprising nationwide infections. In the month of September, 2023, Nowcast list ?Eris as the most prevalent, while BA.2.86 the Pirola variant has been classified as a Variant of Concern (VOC). The Pirola variant has thirty mutations. It may be the most infectious variant yet.

​

A genetic lottery is taking place in the microscopic world that surrounds us. A virus survives by constantly reproducing within the cells of the creatures it infects. A bat in China, a mink in Denmark, a chicken in Mexico, a stockbroker on an elevator in New York City, all have served as living factories for invading armies of virions (the infective "children" of the virus). The number of virions in a single host are staggering, and the potential for mutation exist with every single one. Trillions upon trillions of mistakes occur as the virus replicates. Most of the mistakes don’t improve replication; we never see the result of those mistakes, because they do not survive. The mistakes that occurred as the Wuhan virus reproduced resulted in better version, the Delta Variant. Mistakes that occurred as the Delta Variant reproduced resulted in the Omicron Variant (The Cron)

​

Genetic codes dictate the order of the amino acids used to construct the proteins, and those proteins are the building blocks of the cell.  A saying among geneticists goes: DNA makes RNA, RNA makes Proteins. The strands of DNA that make up the familiar twisted Helix go in opposite directions. One called the sense. The other is called the antisense. The sense strand contains the construction codes called introns. The antisense strand has the same codes, but these codes, called exons, are used to form strands of mRNA. The mRNA instructions are used to make new cells.

 

Groups of amino acids, the "triplets" of introns and exons, comprise these codes. Changing a single amino acid in these triplets can make a big difference in a newly constructed virus.  If the virus was a house, the Genome (the genetic instructions for the virus), would be the architectural plan. Amino acids are like the materials used to build a house: lumber, cement, sheetrock, electrical wiring, shingles, and bricks. Proteins would be like the rooms of the house. The plan for the kitchen needs pipes for water, electricity for lights and appliances, while the living room may need different materials. The roof will need shingles and the outside walls will need bricks. All of these materials have to be put together according to the plan, or the house will not work properly. ​

​

A virus is like an intruder in the neighborhood. It’s a bad carpenter intent upon building a house according to its own plans. The original owner’s needs are ignored, and the architect’s plans are replaced.  The intruder steals the building materials (amino acids) and uses those materials to make a house of its own. Sometimes the bad carpenter gets confused. It might use bricks to build the roof (roof proteins), which then collapses, so the house is defective. It might forget to run water pipes (water pipe proteins) to the bathroom, or the kitchen. Once again, the house is defective. But what if the carpenter mistakenly uses more lumber when building the walls of the house, its mistake results in a stronger wall. That single change makes the house more resilient in bad weather. The next time a storm comes along, the houses with the weaker walls are blown down, but the houses constructed using more lumber in the walls survive. Soon there are more houses with stronger walls, than those with weaker walls. Sometimes even a bad carpenter accidentally improves a house! Similar houses survive, while the weaker houses fail, until there are fewer and fewer, then none. 

 

A mutation that increases the ability of a virus to infect, while causing less severe symptoms, would be advantageous for both the virus and its victims. Patients infected with Pirola are displaying mild symptoms like, “runny noses” and mild congestion. Let's hope the increasing infectivity-decreasing virulence theory of virus mutations proves to be true.