What do specialists do on the new variant? When will they know what they discover? The study of the mutations of the virus, their functioning and their effect on the epidemic imposes difficult times compressible.
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“The anecdotes are no help.” Professor of Professor Joshua Schiffer, Reported by the Los Angeles Times , is without Doubt shared by many infectiologists and epidemiologists across the planet, called to say whether or not Omicron fear, the new variant of the coronavirus, identified in Botswana on November 11. At 1 December, data snarks are all the experts have. To go beyond anecdote, we must look, and look for time. But not necessarily the same time according to … what we are looking for. What do specialists do on Omicron and when they know what they are discovering? Review of operations.
List the mutations: a few hours are enough
The first DNA sequences of the Omicron variant are already known: “It is a South African laboratory that gave first information … on Twitter”, has an olive Schwartz, director of the Virus and Immunity unit at the Pasteur Institute. This sequencing has identified the famous mutations that distinguish Omicron from Delta or other variants. According to the specialist, we can study two things: either the spike, the famous “Spike” protein which is the part of the virus by which it can enter the cell that it counts infect; either the entire virus.
Concerning Omicron, the spique concentrates looks because it brings together 32 mutations on the 50 present on the entire virus – an unprecedented “number”, said the World Health Organization . And it is him that most vaccines target. “Of the thirty mutations that the spique presents presents, we already know the role of almost each of them, notes Olivier Schwartz, but what we know less is their combinatorics.” In other words, the effects to wait their joint presence. This combination reflects the vitality of the variant, pathogenicity – or ability to cause disease, especially in its serious shapes – and its transmissibility.
Three types of mutations are scrutinized:
– Those that promote the receptor binding of the cell to infect;
– those that promote melting, that is, entry into the cell;
– Those that promote immune exhaust, in other words, the immunity resistance conferred by a previous infection or a vaccine.
The theoretical analysis of mutations “can take from a few minutes to a few hours,” says Schwartz, but they will never give a “potential idea of dangerousness” of the variant.
Test the spique: one to two weeks
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