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Omicron BA.2 Lineage, the “Stealth” Variant: Is It Truly a Silent Epidemic? A Literature Review

The epidemic curve of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is silently rising again. Worldwide, the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern (VOC) is Omicron, and its virological characteristics, such as transmissibility, pathogenicity, and resistance to both vaccine- and infec...

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Autores principales: Tiecco, Giorgio, Storti, Samuele, Arsuffi, Stefania, Degli Antoni, Melania, Focà, Emanuele, Castelli, Francesco, Quiros-Roldan, Eugenia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9266794/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35806320
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23137315
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author Tiecco, Giorgio
Storti, Samuele
Arsuffi, Stefania
Degli Antoni, Melania
Focà, Emanuele
Castelli, Francesco
Quiros-Roldan, Eugenia
author_facet Tiecco, Giorgio
Storti, Samuele
Arsuffi, Stefania
Degli Antoni, Melania
Focà, Emanuele
Castelli, Francesco
Quiros-Roldan, Eugenia
author_sort Tiecco, Giorgio
collection PubMed
description The epidemic curve of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is silently rising again. Worldwide, the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern (VOC) is Omicron, and its virological characteristics, such as transmissibility, pathogenicity, and resistance to both vaccine- and infection-induced immunity as well as antiviral drugs, are an urgent public health concern. The Omicron variant has five major sub-lineages; as of February 2022, the BA.2 lineage has been detected in several European and Asian countries, becoming the predominant variant and the real antagonist of the ongoing surge. Hence, although global attention is currently focused on dramatic, historically significant events and the multi-country monkeypox outbreak, this new epidemic is unlikely to fade away in silence. Many aspects of this lineage are still unclear and controversial, but its apparent replication advantage and higher transmissibility, as well as its ability to escape neutralizing antibodies induced by vaccination and previous infection, are rising global concerns. Herein, we review the latest publications and the most recent available literature on the BA.2 lineage of the Omicron variant.
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spelling pubmed-92667942022-07-09 Omicron BA.2 Lineage, the “Stealth” Variant: Is It Truly a Silent Epidemic? A Literature Review Tiecco, Giorgio Storti, Samuele Arsuffi, Stefania Degli Antoni, Melania Focà, Emanuele Castelli, Francesco Quiros-Roldan, Eugenia Int J Mol Sci Review The epidemic curve of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is silently rising again. Worldwide, the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern (VOC) is Omicron, and its virological characteristics, such as transmissibility, pathogenicity, and resistance to both vaccine- and infection-induced immunity as well as antiviral drugs, are an urgent public health concern. The Omicron variant has five major sub-lineages; as of February 2022, the BA.2 lineage has been detected in several European and Asian countries, becoming the predominant variant and the real antagonist of the ongoing surge. Hence, although global attention is currently focused on dramatic, historically significant events and the multi-country monkeypox outbreak, this new epidemic is unlikely to fade away in silence. Many aspects of this lineage are still unclear and controversial, but its apparent replication advantage and higher transmissibility, as well as its ability to escape neutralizing antibodies induced by vaccination and previous infection, are rising global concerns. Herein, we review the latest publications and the most recent available literature on the BA.2 lineage of the Omicron variant. MDPI 2022-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC9266794/ /pubmed/35806320 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23137315 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Tiecco, Giorgio
Storti, Samuele
Arsuffi, Stefania
Degli Antoni, Melania
Focà, Emanuele
Castelli, Francesco
Quiros-Roldan, Eugenia
Omicron BA.2 Lineage, the “Stealth” Variant: Is It Truly a Silent Epidemic? A Literature Review
title Omicron BA.2 Lineage, the “Stealth” Variant: Is It Truly a Silent Epidemic? A Literature Review
title_full Omicron BA.2 Lineage, the “Stealth” Variant: Is It Truly a Silent Epidemic? A Literature Review
title_fullStr Omicron BA.2 Lineage, the “Stealth” Variant: Is It Truly a Silent Epidemic? A Literature Review
title_full_unstemmed Omicron BA.2 Lineage, the “Stealth” Variant: Is It Truly a Silent Epidemic? A Literature Review
title_short Omicron BA.2 Lineage, the “Stealth” Variant: Is It Truly a Silent Epidemic? A Literature Review
title_sort omicron ba.2 lineage, the “stealth” variant: is it truly a silent epidemic? a literature review
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9266794/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35806320
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23137315
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