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Review
. 2021 Jun 18:8:20499361211024372.
doi: 10.1177/20499361211024372. eCollection 2021 Jan-Dec.

The emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern

Adekunle Sanyaolu  1 , Chuku Okorie  2 , Aleksandra Marinkovic  3 , Nafees Haider  4 , Abu Fahad Abbasi  5 , Urooj Jaferi  4 , Stephanie Prakash  3 , Vyshnavy Balendra  3
Affiliations
Review

The emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern

Adekunle Sanyaolu et al. Ther Adv Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Since emerging from Wuhan, China, in December of 2019, the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has been causing devastating severe respiratory infections in humans worldwide. With the disease spreading faster than the medical community could contain it, death tolls increased at an alarming rate worldwide, causing the World Health Organization to officially sanction the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak as a pandemic, leading to a state of worldwide lockdown for the majority of the year 2020. There have been reports of new strains of the virus emerging in various parts of the world, with some strains displaying even greater infectivity and transmissibility. Areas of the emerging variant of concern arise from countries like the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, and India. These mutations carry a lineage from N501Y, D614G, N439K, Y453F, and others, which are globally dominated by clades 20A, 20B, and 20C. This literature review intends to identify and report SARS-CoV-2 variants that are currently evolving and their disease implications.

Keywords: 501.V3; 501Y.V1; 501Y.V2; ACE2; B.1.1.7; COVID-19; D614G; E484K; N439K; N501Y; SARS-CoV-2; Y453F; genetic variations; spike mutations; variants of concern.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Chart showing the track of SARS-CoV-2 variants. Data recreated from Nextstrain. Note. 19A and 19B emerged in Wuhan and led the outbreak early in the course of disease transmissibility. 20A originated from 19A and influenced the European outbreak, which has since spread globally. 20B, 20C, 20D, and 20E are all derived from 20A. 20B and 20C are globally distributed, whereas 20D has been seen mainly in South Africa, South America, and southern Europe. Furthermore, 20E is localized in Europe. 20F comes from 20B and is located primarily in Australia. 20G arises from 20C and is detected primarily in the USA. 20H and 20I include two variants of concern (VOCs) emerging from N501Y; 501Y.V2 in South Africa and 501Y.V1 in the UK while 20J has the VOC 501Y.V3 or P1 which emerged from Brazil and Japan. The Indian VOC B.1.617 originated from 20A.
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