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COVID‐19: Omicron – the latest, the least virulent, but probably not the last variant of concern of SARS‐CoV‐2

The Omicron variant rapidly became the dominant SARS‐CoV‐2 strain in South Africa and elsewhere. This review explores whether this rise was due to an increased transmission of the variant or its escape from population immunity by an extensively mutated spike protein. The mutations affected the struc...

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Autor principal: Brüssow, Harald
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9111164/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35443078
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.14064
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author Brüssow, Harald
author_facet Brüssow, Harald
author_sort Brüssow, Harald
collection PubMed
description The Omicron variant rapidly became the dominant SARS‐CoV‐2 strain in South Africa and elsewhere. This review explores whether this rise was due to an increased transmission of the variant or its escape from population immunity by an extensively mutated spike protein. The mutations affected the structure of the spike protein leading to the loss of neutralization by most, but not all, therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. Omicron also shows substantial immune escape from serum antibodies in convalescent patients and vaccinees. A booster immunization increased, however, the titre and breadth of antiviral antibody response. The cellular immune response against Omicron was largely preserved explaining a satisfying protection of boosted vaccinees against severe infections. Clinicians observed less severe infection with Omicron, but other scientists warned that this must not necessarily reflect less intrinsic virulence. However, in animal experiments with mice and hamsters, Omicron infections also displayed a lesser virulence than previous VOCs and lung functions were less compromised. Cell biologists demonstrated that Omicron differs from Delta by preferring the endocytic pathway for cell entry over fusion with the plasma membrane which might explain Omicron’s distinct replication along the respiratory tract compared with Delta. Omicron represents a distinct evolutionary lineage that deviated from the mainstream of evolving SARS‐CoV‐2 already in mid‐2020 raising questions about where it circulated before getting widespread in December 2021. The role of Omicron for the future trajectory of the COVID‐19 pandemic is discussed.
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spelling pubmed-91111642022-05-17 COVID‐19: Omicron – the latest, the least virulent, but probably not the last variant of concern of SARS‐CoV‐2 Brüssow, Harald Microb Biotechnol Lilliput The Omicron variant rapidly became the dominant SARS‐CoV‐2 strain in South Africa and elsewhere. This review explores whether this rise was due to an increased transmission of the variant or its escape from population immunity by an extensively mutated spike protein. The mutations affected the structure of the spike protein leading to the loss of neutralization by most, but not all, therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. Omicron also shows substantial immune escape from serum antibodies in convalescent patients and vaccinees. A booster immunization increased, however, the titre and breadth of antiviral antibody response. The cellular immune response against Omicron was largely preserved explaining a satisfying protection of boosted vaccinees against severe infections. Clinicians observed less severe infection with Omicron, but other scientists warned that this must not necessarily reflect less intrinsic virulence. However, in animal experiments with mice and hamsters, Omicron infections also displayed a lesser virulence than previous VOCs and lung functions were less compromised. Cell biologists demonstrated that Omicron differs from Delta by preferring the endocytic pathway for cell entry over fusion with the plasma membrane which might explain Omicron’s distinct replication along the respiratory tract compared with Delta. Omicron represents a distinct evolutionary lineage that deviated from the mainstream of evolving SARS‐CoV‐2 already in mid‐2020 raising questions about where it circulated before getting widespread in December 2021. The role of Omicron for the future trajectory of the COVID‐19 pandemic is discussed. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-04-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9111164/ /pubmed/35443078 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.14064 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Microbial Biotechnology published by Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
spellingShingle Lilliput
Brüssow, Harald
COVID‐19: Omicron – the latest, the least virulent, but probably not the last variant of concern of SARS‐CoV‐2
title COVID‐19: Omicron – the latest, the least virulent, but probably not the last variant of concern of SARS‐CoV‐2
title_full COVID‐19: Omicron – the latest, the least virulent, but probably not the last variant of concern of SARS‐CoV‐2
title_fullStr COVID‐19: Omicron – the latest, the least virulent, but probably not the last variant of concern of SARS‐CoV‐2
title_full_unstemmed COVID‐19: Omicron – the latest, the least virulent, but probably not the last variant of concern of SARS‐CoV‐2
title_short COVID‐19: Omicron – the latest, the least virulent, but probably not the last variant of concern of SARS‐CoV‐2
title_sort covid‐19: omicron – the latest, the least virulent, but probably not the last variant of concern of sars‐cov‐2
topic Lilliput
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9111164/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35443078
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.14064
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