Identified a new variant of Covid, Ómicron BA.2.75, with more capacity to 'escape' from vaccines

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Studies by epidemiologists and geneticists following

aim to discover and analyze globally stored genome data (for example, in GISAID, the international platform for collecting sequenced

genomes ) to identify

that could be worrying.

All variants circulating in the world now are sub-lineages of Omicron

.

In particular, after a few weeks of BA.2 prevalence,

These days, however, the eyes of scholars are focused on a subvariant that derives not from

, but from

and has been

.

This is a variant with the potential to become of concern and therefore to be closely monitored.

It should be noted that there are still very few confirmed cases,

but apart from a larger cluster

, the geographic distribution is already international (with Australia, Canada, Germany, UK, and New Zealand depositing at least one sequence), which would rule out sequencing errors.

The analysis of the variant in question was carried out in detail by

, a virologist at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London:

has 45 mutations in common with

and 15 peculiar ones.

Among these,

(BA.5 has "only" 3).

In particular, it differs considerably from the

'parent'

, synthesized by scientists at the Laboratory of Protein and Virus Evolution at Fred Hutch (USA), is one of the most potent

induced by current vaccines that still neutralize

.

Therefore, the forecast for BA.2.75 is for

created by vaccinations or a recent

infection .

However,

will have less effect on antibodies in people with a previous

.

Therefore, the antigenic advantage of

over

will be more pronounced in people who have not been exposed to

.

The ability of

to "simulate" vaccine antibodies is increasing, also because the distance of the variants that have followed over time from the original

virus (on which the vaccines were designed in use) is abysmal,

: this implies greater difficulty in curbing infections, which means greater transmissibility of viruses and more people who get sick again.

On the other hand, the protection still offered by vaccines against severe

disease remains strong.

However, the success of any variant also depends on

Until now, the infectious capacity of

has always increased (making it one of the most contagious viruses that has ever appeared on the planet) and the same could also happen with the

variant , which has

in Spike protein, but it remains a difficult variable to measure experimentally and

to see how it is transmitted in the human population.

Nothing is known, however, about the

, which is measured only in the field, in hospitals.

However, so far, the virus has not gone in the direction of increasing its pathogenic impact and it is thought that this may be the case again.

In any case, the

remains essential to understand in which direction the

is moving and, above all, to plan timely interventions.

It is also important to understand which variants and features

will need to focus on , which risk chasing the succession of

variants .

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• Coronavirus

• Omicron variant