“Worth keeping an eye on”
Alternative Omicron: What’s the Deal With BA.2.75?
Researchers around the world are watching how the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is evolving. In the past few days, the new version BA.2.75 has grabbed the headlines. One reason for this was a tweet from molecular biologist Ulrich Elling last Sunday. Elling, who is conducting research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, noted the variant on his own Twitter account: “Is BA.2.75 perhaps the next variant to worry about? I don’t like the observed mutations,” the researcher wrote.
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Virologist Thomas Peacock of Imperial College London had previously tweeted that one should “watch the 2.75 BA line.” Written by data professionals from Melbourne.
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Some cases in India, few in other countries
A very rapid multiplication of BA.2.75 was observed in India, Elling tweeted. Cases of BA 2.75 have also been sequenced in other countries such as Canada, Germany, Australia, New Zealand or Great Britain, but only a few. BA.2.75 contains eight spike protein mutations compared to BA.2. In the case of the BA.5 variant – which is currently prevalent in Germany – there are only three compared to BA.2, according to Elling.
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According to Elling, mutations at the site of the virus to which the antibodies bind could be of particular interest: These changes could make it easier to escape attacks from the immune system. Because BA.2.75 and BA.5 differ in eleven loci, it is also possible that immunity to BA.5 does not protect against infection with the new variant. Therefore, another wave could loom if BA.2.75 becomes dominant, according to Elling’s theory. However, it is too early to say whether BA.2.75 will replace the BA.2 or BA.5 variants, Elling admitted. In another tweet, he rated his theory as “highly speculative.”
BA.2.75 Distribution Limited
Indian news platform South Asia International on Tuesday reported that BA.2.75 has “only limited distribution” in India, citing official sources. To date, it has not been determined whether the variant is more dangerous or contagious. New Zealand’s Ministry of Health said it was still looking at how easily the variant was transmitted, what diseases it caused, and whether it could evade an immune response.
Whether and how new mutations affect the course of infection depends on many different factors and can rarely be predicted with certainty. Some variants remained limited to individual regions or countries, while others spread across Europe or worldwide. The larger mutation recently observed from Sars-CoV-2 to the omicron variant was associated with easier virus transmission, but also with significantly weaker disease progression.
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