Omicron Variant of COVID-19
Omicron variant is a mutated strain of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) with faster transmissibility and enhanced virulence compared to the original COVID-19 virus.
Omicron variant is a mutated strain of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) with faster transmissibility and enhanced virulence compared to the original COVID-19 virus.
‘A new study has characterized the new omicron variant BA.2.75, comparing its ability to evade antibodies against current and previous variants.’
”Identifying how vulnerable the population is, right now, to emerging variants is crucial,” says Daniel Sheward, researcher at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, and the study’s first author. “By producing a pseudovirus for BA.2.75, we were able to test its sensitivity to antibodies present in blood donors.”
Omicron BA.2.75 Becomes Dominant COVID Strain
Tests were carried out using 40 random blood samples taken in Stockholm, both before and after the first omicron wave.”Our study shows that omicron BA.2.75 has approximately the same level of resistance to antibodies as the dominant variant BA.5, which is reassuring news if we were to suffer a BA.2.75 wave in Sweden”, says Ben Murrell, assistant professor at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, and the study’s senior author.
The researchers from Karolinska Institutet, University of Cape Town, South Africa, ETH Zürich, Switzerland, Karolinska University Hospital, and Imperial College London, Great Britain, have also investigated whether antiviral monoclonal antibodies, which are used clinically to treat already infected patients, lose their effect against omicron BA.2.75, compared to BA.5. Here, too, the researchers found no alarming differences.
BA.5 Omicron Subvariant 4 Times More Vaccine-resistant, Says Study
The BA.5 Omicron subvariant is four times more resistant to mRNA vaccines than earlier strains of Omicron, which include Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines.
The BA.5 Omicron subvariant is four times more resistant to mRNA vaccines than earlier strains of Omicron, which include Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines.
The study was funded by the SciLifeLab’s Pandemic Laboratory Preparedness program, the Erling Persson Foundation, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Daniel J. Sheward, Gunilla B. Karlsson Hedestam and Ben Murrell have intellectual property rights associated with antibodies that neutralise omicron variants.
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Most People Infected with Omicron Didn�t Know it, Says Study
More than one in every two people who were infected with Omicron didn’t know they had it, revealed study.
More than one in every two people who were infected with Omicron didn’t know they had it, revealed study.
Next COVID Threat: BA.5 Omicron Subvariant is Now Dominant in the US
Watch out: BA.5 Omicron subvariant, now the dominant coronavirus strain in the US, made up almost 80 per cent of new COVID-19 infections in the country.
Watch out: BA.5 Omicron subvariant, now the dominant coronavirus strain in the US, made up almost 80 per cent of new COVID-19 infections in the country.
