Cargando…

Evolution of SARS-CoV-2: BA.4/BA.5 Variants Continues to Pose New Challenges

The acquisition of a high number of mutations, notably, the gain of two mutations L452R and F486V in RBD, and the ability to evade vaccine/natural infection-induced immunity suggests that Omicron is continuing to use “immune-escape potential” as an evolutionary space to maintain a selection advantag...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Quadir, Neha, Singh, Jasdeep, Alam, Anwar, Malik, Asrar Ahmad, Rahman, Syed Asad, Hira, Subhash, Ehtesham, Nasreen Zafar, Sundar, Durai, Hasnain, Seyed Ehtesham
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9781647/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36560614
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v14122610
_version_ 1784857125490524160
author Quadir, Neha
Singh, Jasdeep
Alam, Anwar
Malik, Asrar Ahmad
Rahman, Syed Asad
Hira, Subhash
Ehtesham, Nasreen Zafar
Sundar, Durai
Hasnain, Seyed Ehtesham
author_facet Quadir, Neha
Singh, Jasdeep
Alam, Anwar
Malik, Asrar Ahmad
Rahman, Syed Asad
Hira, Subhash
Ehtesham, Nasreen Zafar
Sundar, Durai
Hasnain, Seyed Ehtesham
author_sort Quadir, Neha
collection PubMed
description The acquisition of a high number of mutations, notably, the gain of two mutations L452R and F486V in RBD, and the ability to evade vaccine/natural infection-induced immunity suggests that Omicron is continuing to use “immune-escape potential” as an evolutionary space to maintain a selection advantage within the population. Despite the low hospitalizations and lower death rate, the surges by these variants may offset public health measures and disrupt health care facilities as seen recently in Portugal and the USA. Interestingly these BA.4/BA.5 variants have been found to be more severe than the earlier-emerged Omicron variants. We believe that aggressive COVID-19 surveillance using affordable testing strategies might actually help understand the evolution and transmission pattern of new variants. The sudden dip in reporting of new cases in some of the low- and middle-income countries is an alarming situation and needs to be addressed as this could lead to undetected transmission of future variants of interest/concern of SARS-CoV-2 in large population settings, including advent of a ‘super’ virus. It would be interesting to examine the possible role/influence, if any, of the two different kinds of vaccines, the spike protein-based versus the inactivated whole virus, in the evolution of BA.4/BA.5.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9781647
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-97816472022-12-24 Evolution of SARS-CoV-2: BA.4/BA.5 Variants Continues to Pose New Challenges Quadir, Neha Singh, Jasdeep Alam, Anwar Malik, Asrar Ahmad Rahman, Syed Asad Hira, Subhash Ehtesham, Nasreen Zafar Sundar, Durai Hasnain, Seyed Ehtesham Viruses Commentary The acquisition of a high number of mutations, notably, the gain of two mutations L452R and F486V in RBD, and the ability to evade vaccine/natural infection-induced immunity suggests that Omicron is continuing to use “immune-escape potential” as an evolutionary space to maintain a selection advantage within the population. Despite the low hospitalizations and lower death rate, the surges by these variants may offset public health measures and disrupt health care facilities as seen recently in Portugal and the USA. Interestingly these BA.4/BA.5 variants have been found to be more severe than the earlier-emerged Omicron variants. We believe that aggressive COVID-19 surveillance using affordable testing strategies might actually help understand the evolution and transmission pattern of new variants. The sudden dip in reporting of new cases in some of the low- and middle-income countries is an alarming situation and needs to be addressed as this could lead to undetected transmission of future variants of interest/concern of SARS-CoV-2 in large population settings, including advent of a ‘super’ virus. It would be interesting to examine the possible role/influence, if any, of the two different kinds of vaccines, the spike protein-based versus the inactivated whole virus, in the evolution of BA.4/BA.5. MDPI 2022-11-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9781647/ /pubmed/36560614 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v14122610 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 Commentary
Quadir, Neha
Singh, Jasdeep
Alam, Anwar
Malik, Asrar Ahmad
Rahman, Syed Asad
Hira, Subhash
Ehtesham, Nasreen Zafar
Sundar, Durai
Hasnain, Seyed Ehtesham
Evolution of SARS-CoV-2: BA.4/BA.5 Variants Continues to Pose New Challenges
title Evolution of SARS-CoV-2: BA.4/BA.5 Variants Continues to Pose New Challenges
title_full Evolution of SARS-CoV-2: BA.4/BA.5 Variants Continues to Pose New Challenges
title_fullStr Evolution of SARS-CoV-2: BA.4/BA.5 Variants Continues to Pose New Challenges
title_full_unstemmed Evolution of SARS-CoV-2: BA.4/BA.5 Variants Continues to Pose New Challenges
title_short Evolution of SARS-CoV-2: BA.4/BA.5 Variants Continues to Pose New Challenges
title_sort evolution of sars-cov-2: ba.4/ba.5 variants continues to pose new challenges
topic Commentary
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9781647/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36560614
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v14122610
work_keys_str_mv AT quadirneha evolutionofsarscov2ba4ba5variantscontinuestoposenewchallenges
AT singhjasdeep evolutionofsarscov2ba4ba5variantscontinuestoposenewchallenges
AT alamanwar evolutionofsarscov2ba4ba5variantscontinuestoposenewchallenges
AT malikasrarahmad evolutionofsarscov2ba4ba5variantscontinuestoposenewchallenges
AT rahmansyedasad evolutionofsarscov2ba4ba5variantscontinuestoposenewchallenges
AT hirasubhash evolutionofsarscov2ba4ba5variantscontinuestoposenewchallenges
AT ehteshamnasreenzafar evolutionofsarscov2ba4ba5variantscontinuestoposenewchallenges
AT sundardurai evolutionofsarscov2ba4ba5variantscontinuestoposenewchallenges
AT hasnainseyedehtesham evolutionofsarscov2ba4ba5variantscontinuestoposenewchallenges