An international research team found that the Omicron variant would have acquired part of a cold virus – this would explain the mild symptoms.
The Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus would have acquired a “piece” of genetic material from a cold virus, a change never seen before in the other strains of the pathogen. This peculiar recombination, which would have occurred in an immunosuppressed patient affected by the cold and COVID-19 at the same time, could have made the pandemic pathogen less aggressive, less “animal” and closer to man; this would not only explain the increased contagiousness, but also the fact that the first cases of the Omicron variant detected in the world – mainly in South Africa, where it emerged – have milder symptoms than those associated with the other variants of the virus. It is not surprising that such a process could have occurred in South Africa; it is in fact a country with a high concentration of immunosuppressed patients due to the high spread of the HIV virus, responsible for the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a disease which, as the name suggests, causes a reduction in effectiveness of the immune system.
To advance the sensational hypothesis of recombination with a cold virus, which could change the fate of the COVID-19 pandemic, was an international research team composed of American and Indian scientists from nference Lab, a company specializing in data analysis biomedical. The researchers, led by Professor Venky Soundararajan, founder of the company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, came to their conclusions after comparing the mutations detected in the Omicron variant with those present in the other four variants of concern (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta), those of the variants of interest (Lambda, Mu, Eta, Iota and Kappa) and other 1,500 lineages of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus loaded into genetic databases, for a total of 5.4 million of genomes. As specified by the scientists in the study abstract, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, the Omicron variant S or Spike protein is characterized by 26 amino acid mutations (23 substitutions, two deletions and one insertion) that are distinct from those observed in the other strains.
The experts focused on a specific insertion mutation called “ins214EPE”, which had never before been observed in the pandemic pathogen. ‘The nucleotide sequence encoding ins214EPE may have been acquired by recombination with the genomes of other viruses that infect the same host cells as SARS-CoV-2,’ explain Professor Soundararajan and colleagues. Since gastrointestinal and respiratory cells have been shown to be co-infected simultaneously by SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal coronaviruses such as HcoV-229E, and because cold coronavirus genomes have sequences homologous to the nucleotide sequence encoding ins214EPE, experts believe that the emergence of Omicron occurred precisely in a patient with ongoing dual infection. In simple terms, during replication, SARS-CoV-2 would have “captured” a fragment of the genetic material of the other virus, giving birth to the new variant.
Prof. Bassetti, Director of the Clinic of infectious diseases of the San Martino hospital in Genoa – Italy:
“In the omicron variant a piece of the common cold virus” “According to the results obtained by the researchers” Omicron thanks to this addition of genetic material of the cold virus is more ‘human’ and less animal than the initial SarsCoV2 “, explains the director of the Clinic of infectious diseases of the San Martino hospital in Genoa – Italy
“A little over a week after it became world famous, thanks to researchers from Massachusetts we know a little more about the omicron variant. The new variant that has perhaps unfairly terrorized the world has acquired a ‘piece’ of the virus. common cold. This explains why it would give milder clinical pictures, compared to the Delta, very similar to a cold “. This was highlighted by Matteo Bassetti, director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic at the Policlinico San Martino hospital in Genoa, reporting and commenting on an international study still in preprint on Facebook. According to the results obtained by the researchers, explains Bassetti, “Thanks to this addition of genetic material of the cold virus, Omicron is more ‘human’ and less animal than the initial SarsCoV2. This is why it more easily escapes our immune system which does not recognize it as This is a very interesting research which, if confirmed, would show for the first time – underlines the infectious specialist – that the Covid virus is spontaneously weakening, losing its initial strength to cause serious diseases. it is almost to be hoped that Omicron will supplant the Delta and the other previous variants. It may even be more contagious, but if it looks so much like a cold … “.
Source: nference, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA, Prof.Bassetti Italy
