One year into the pandemic: Short-term evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and emergence of new lineages
Por:
González-Candelas F, Shaw MA, Phan T, Kulkarni-Kale U, Paraskevis D, Luciani F, Kimura H and Sironi M
Publicada:
1 ago 2021
Ahead of Print:
1 abr 2021
Resumen:
The COVID-19 pandemic was officially declared on March 11th, 2020. Since the very beginning, the spread of the virus has been tracked nearly in real-time by worldwide genome sequencing efforts. As of March 2021, more than 830,000 SARS-CoV-2 genomes have been uploaded in GISAID and this wealth of data allowed researchers to study the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 during this first pandemic year. In parallel, nomenclatures systems, often with poor consistency among each other, have been developed to designate emerging viral lineages. Despite general fears that the virus might mutate to become more virulent or transmissible, SARS-CoV-2 genetic diversity has remained relatively low during the first similar to 8 months of sustained human-to-human transmission. At the end of 2020/beginning of 2021, though, some alarming events started to raise concerns of possible changes in the evolutionary trajectory of the virus. Specifically, three new viral variants associated with extensive transmission have been described as variants of concern (VOC). These variants were first reported in the UK (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351) and Brazil (P.1). Their designation as VOCs was determined by an increase of local cases and by the high number of amino acid substitutions harboured by these lineages. This latter feature is reminiscent of viral sequences isolated from immunocompromised patients with long-term infection, suggesting a possible causal link. Here we review the events that led to the identification of these lineages, as well as emerging data concerning their possible implications for viral phenotypes, reinfection risk, vaccine efficiency and epidemic potential. Most of the available evidence is, to date, provisional, but still represents a starting point to uncover the potential threat posed by the VOCs. We also stress that genomic surveillance must be strengthened, especially in the wake of the vaccination campaigns.
Filiaciones:
:
Joint Research Unit Infection and Public Health FISABIO-University of Valencia, Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio) and CIBER in Epidemiology and Public Health, Valencia, Spain
Shaw MA:
Leeds Institute of Medical Research at St James's, School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
Phan T:
Division of Clinical Microbiology, University of Pittsburgh and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Kulkarni-Kale U:
Bioinformatics Centre, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411007, Maharashtra, India
Paraskevis D:
Department of Hygiene Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
Luciani F:
University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, New South Wales, Australia
Kimura H:
Department of Health Science, Gunma Paz University Graduate School, Takasaki, Gunma 370-0006, Japan
Sironi M:
Bioinformatics Unit, Scientific Institute IRCCS E. MEDEA, Bosisio Parini (LC), Italy
Green Published, hybrid
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