hyderabad the delta variant b16172 first discovered in india has now acquired a new mutation to emerge as delta b161721 also called ay1 the delta delta plus mutant has acquired k417n mutationscientists fear that the monoclonal antibodies cocktail currently prescribed for covid19 patients may not work against the delta mutantaccording to public health england phe a uk government public health body 63 genomes of delta with k417n mutation have been identified on gisaid in its latest report on covid19 variants updated on june 11 india has reported six cases of ay1 or delta as of june 7dr vinod scaria clinician and computational biologist institute of genomics and integrative biology igib new delhi while referring to the delta variant said one important point to consider regarding k417n is evidence suggesting resistance to monoclonal antibodies casirivimab and imdevimab the monoclonal antibodies mab cocktail incidentally has received an emergency use authorisation eua from the central drugs standard control organisation cdsco in indiadr vinod tweeted on sunday that one of the emerging variants is b161721 also known as ay1 characterized by the acquisition of k417n mutation the mutation maps to the receptor binding domain and has also been associated with immune escapethe variant frequency for k417n is not much in india at this point in time as delta continues to evolve acquiring new mutations there is a lot of interest in understanding these mutations dr vinod tweeted naming the new mutant as deltaearlier a report by phe said the deltaay1 delta with k417n was found through routine scanning of variation in delta a small number of sequences were detected which had acquired the spike protein mutation k417nscientists attribute the earliest sequence from europe in late march 2021 dr vinod said 127 sequences from europe asia and america are now available in public domain understanding this continued evolution is of great importance in mapping the evolutionary landscape of emerging variants largely the virus has tried to optimise for transmission and immune escape by stepwise acquisition of new mutations he addedhe said several genomes are now available for the lineage ay1 or b161721 from across the world the sequences are mostly from europe asia and america the travel histories are not readily available to make assumptions the novel coronavirus has a nearly constant rate of acquiring genetic variants each emerging variant has acquired additional variants in a stepwise fashion acquisition largely follows a trend of transmissibility andor immune escapethe k417n mutation is also found in beta or b1351 which is also regarded as the variant of concern delta cases were also reported from other countries they include one case each from canada germany and russia two from nepal four from switzerland nine from poland 12 from portugal 13 from japan and 14 from the usa