The omicron variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which have rapidly spread around the world over the past year, latch onto our cells more tightly, invade them more efficiently, and elude many of the antibodies induced by previous infections and vaccines. These are some of the key findings from a multinational team of researchers reporting today in the journal Nature.
The lead authors of the study were Amin Addetia, a graduate student, and Young-Jun Park, a research scientist, in the laboratory of David Veesler, professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and Luca Picolli, director of Humabs BioMed, Bellinzona, Switzerland, and James Brett Case of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Veesler, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, headed the study.
The omicron variants that have become dominant over the past year, such as BQ.11 and XBB.1.5, have high affinity for the receptor on host cells, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, and they are able to fuse with the cell membrane and invade much more efficiently than previous SARS-CoV-2 omicron variants.”
David Veesler, professor of biochemistry, University of Washington School of Medicine
Since the 2019 outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China,the virus has continually evolved. New variants of the original strain are constantly emerging. In some cases, these variants have proved to be less fit,