First reported in South Africa on November 24, the new omicron strain of coronavirus is spreading rapidly around the world. WHO says it could be extremely dangerous to humans
On Friday, November 26, the WHO Working Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) identified the new strain of coronavirus B.1.1.529 as "of concern" (VOC) and assigned it its own letter name "omicron". According to the WHO classification, all strains of coronavirus are divided into "of interest" (VOI) - requiring monitoring - and "causing concern" (VOC) - the most dangerous due to their properties. Such a distinction is most convenient for assessing the possible consequences of the virus and developing a strategy to combat it. The VOC group, in addition to the "omicron", includes the options "alpha", "beta", "gamma" and "delta".
The strains of concern have one or more of the following:
more quickly transmitted from person to person (more transmissible);
more likely to cause a disease - that is, when in contact with a carrier of the virus, the probability of getting sick is very high;
characterized by new symptoms that were previously unusual for covid;
relatively resistant to vaccines and drugs.
The omicron strain of coronavirus has the most mutations - what does this mean?
Viruses mutate in order to more effectively penetrate living organisms and multiply in their cells. Mutations are changes in the genetic material, often affecting properties of viruses such as infectivity, vaccine resistance, disease severity, symptoms, and so on. The new Omicron strain has the largest number of mutations of the Spike protein (the protein responsible for attaching a viral particle to an organism cell) among all registered coronavirus variants - 32.
Brief description of the detected mutations:
Nine have previously been found in alpha, beta, gamma, and delta strains and have been associated with increased transmissibility (infectivity) and antibody resistance.
Two more mutations, according to research, potentially improve the binding of the virus to cell receptors, accelerating its penetration into the body.
In addition to changes in the Spike protein, scientists have found two potentially dangerous mutations in the nucleocapsid (envelope) that affect transmissibility, that is, accelerate the transmission of the virus.
Other mutations can also change the properties of viral particles, but at the moment, researchers do not have enough information, says Jeffrey Barrett, director of the Sanger Institute's genomic project, on his Twitter account.
The Omicron strain is of particular concern to healthcare professionals because of the combination of a large number of different mutations, but it is not yet clear how these changes in the genetic material will interact and affect the properties of the virus, for example, transmissibility, vaccine resistance, disease severity and complications. It takes time to do research.
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