How many times do you have to be exposed to Corona to become immune to Omicron?
And what was the prediction made by the Russian scientist Mikhail Chelkanov about the new strains of Corona?
And how do we discover the next epidemic or wave of the new mutant?
The answers are in this report.
How often do you have to be exposed to a corona thorn to have immunity to Omicron?
We start in Germany, where scientists from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the Helmholtz Research Center and the Technical University of Munich have found;
The immune system is able to neutralize even the Omicron strain after being exposed 3 times to the thistle protein "Spike" in the Corona virus.
Exposure to the thorn protein is either through infection with the virus, or receiving the Covid-19 vaccine, which presents the thorn protein to the immune system so that it recognizes it and forms antibodies against it.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the new coronavirus - whose scientific name is SARS-CoV-2 - has continued to evolve, with worrying new variants spreading rapidly.
With its greater ability to infect and partially evade the immune response, Omicron has become the dominant alternative in most countries, according to a report in the Eurokalert website.
How do we educate the immune system to fight Omicron?
A research team led by Professor Ulrich Pruetzer, Professor Percy Knoll and Professor Oliver T. Kepler, provided answers on how to "educate" immune systems to fight Omicron and other immune escape variants of the virus.
The researchers concluded that 3 cases of exposure to the viral spike protein lead to the production of virus-neutralizing antibodies in high quantities and with high quality.
These high-quality antibodies bind to the viral spike protein more strongly, and are also able to effectively fight the omicron variant.
This applies to the following people:
Those who received a triple vaccine, that is, 3 doses of the vaccine.
People who have recovered from COVID-19 and then receive two doses of the vaccine.
People who have been vaccinated twice and subsequently become infected.
The study included 171 participants and was published in the journal Nature Medicine.
As would be expected from many of the mutants, Omicron demonstrated the most pronounced evasion of neutralizing antibodies compared to all other viral variants tested.
"For Omicron you need more and better antibodies to prevent infection," says Kepler.
The researchers developed a new virus neutralization test, which allowed them to analyze antibodies in many serum samples and different variants of the virus at high throughput rates.
"The new finding of our study is that people need 3 separate exposures to the fork protein to build up a high-level neutralizing activity against all viral variants, including omicron," says Protzer.
A Russian scientist gives a prediction about the new strains of Corona
Head of the Department of Epidemiology at the Faculty of Biomedicine at the Russian Far Eastern Federal University, Mikhail Chelkanov, said that the new strains of the Corona virus will be less dangerous, but more contagious, according to what Russia Today reported on RIA Novosti.
And Shelkanov added that this is confirmed by the emergence of the Omicron mutant, and explained that “it is not in the interest of any parasite to kill the host (the original virus), so the evolution of the Corona virus will continue in this direction; the more mutations accumulate, the more likely it is to be less pathogenic and less aggressive. , but with the possibility that the virus is more contagious."
He explained that this development is currently observed with the Omicron mutant, which is characterized by rapid spread but is less dangerous than the strains that preceded it.
He added that the same trend will be observed in subsequent genetic variants of the pathogens of Covid-19 disease.
This does not mean that Omicron is completely safe, he said, noting that the risk remains, so vaccination is still necessary.
How do we detect the next epidemic or wave of the new mutant?
Dr. Rick Bright, in an article in The New York Times, discussed the possibility of detecting the emergence of new viruses or their mutants early and before spreading, saying that this became available.
Bright, an immunologist, virologist and vaccine expert, and CEO of the American Institute for Epidemiology, says there are places to search that may help scientists find new variables faster, such as wastewater and air;
People shed coronavirus in their stools and exhales, and as a result, the virus can be detected before people are tested or have symptoms.
He explains that the search for coronavirus variants is currently very slow and sporadic, as scientists in a few countries (South Africa, Botswana, the United States and other countries) monitor patterns in a number of cases and regularly send samples of the virus from infected people to see if there are noticeable genetic changes.
The results of this analysis can be shared within a global network, such as GISAID, an international community of scientists who openly share data on disease variants, to compare coronavirus sequences from around the world.
By the time this happens, the variants are often already circulating in the community, and this process of analysis is like testing every piece of hay.
Detecting the next epidemic through a sewage examination
Wastewater monitoring during the Omicron outbreak was used by scientists in New York City, Boston and elsewhere, and they were able to pinpoint impending increases in cases in certain neighborhoods even before a variant of the test swabs was identified.
The reverse is also true. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, for example, officials who saw a decrease in the amount of virus in sewage were able to predict that the Omicron peak had passed.
The writer goes on to say that there was very little interest in testing air samples, at least until recently.
Chinese officials have developed a detection system they say they will use to collect and test air samples from venues at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. In the United States, a partnership between Davis, California, and the University of California at Davis monitors air filters in elementary schools for the virus.
So far, scientists have mostly used environmental samples like these to track trends in coronavirus concentration and identify hotspots for response.
These samples could also provide a window into the dynamics of a worrying new variable in the broader community, faster and more accurate than any one-person sample.
People get rid of the Corona virus in their stools and exhales
A virus sample taken from a nasal swab or saliva provides information on a single person;
A single sample of sewage or air provides information on many people;
Therefore, relying more on these methods could give the world additional time to respond before the variables spread.
However, some practical challenges remain, and environmental samples can contain many other contents, including the myriad of viruses, bacteria and fungi found in human waste.
Determining what is important and what is not important can be difficult.
The world needs to develop a consensus on how to analyze environmental sequencing and create a hub, as GISAID does for clinical sequencing, that enables near-real-time information and insights to be shared across countries.
Helping leaders prepare for the next surge of coronavirus
While pursuing and funding these initiatives, it is also important for the public to be aware of how environmental testing and sequencing work in order to avoid some misinformation and misunderstanding affecting other tools such as vaccines.
Regulators must clarify that environmental samples are unidentified;
They don't confirm who threw the virus, they just make it clear that the coronavirus is in the community.
Dr. Bright concludes that testing and sequencing samples of viruses found in wastewater or air is not a stand-alone solution;
It is best used in conjunction with other data sources to build a broader and more comprehensive view of the spread of the pathogen across society and around the world.
Since it is the fastest way to detect variables, it can help leaders prepare for the next surge of the Corona virus and potentially prevent it, and he hoped that this will be done with the next epidemic after the end of the Corona epidemic.