Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Jul;32(4):e2358.
doi: 10.1002/rmv.2358. Epub 2022 Apr 21.

Omicron - The new SARS-CoV-2 challenge?

A Lino  1 , M A Cardoso  2 , P Martins-Lopes  1   3 , H M R Gonçalves  2
Affiliations
Review

Omicron - The new SARS-CoV-2 challenge?

A Lino et al. Rev Med Virol. 2022 Jul.

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 virus has infected nearly 300 M people worldwide and has been associated with over 6 M deaths by March 2022. Since the virus emergence in December 2019 in Wuhan, several new mutations have been described. The World Health Organization has developed a working name for these emerging variants according to their impact on the worldwide population. In this context a high alert has been paid to variants of concern (VOC) due to their high infectiousness and transmissibility patterns. The most recent VOC, Omicron (B.1.1.529), has become dominant in the shortest time ever and has placed Europe under an overwhelming and unprecedented number of new cases. This variant has numerous mutations in regions that are associated with higher transmissibility, stronger viral binding, affinity and antibody escape. Moreover, the mutations and deletions present in the spike protein suggest that the SARS-CoV-2 specific attachment inhibitors may not be the best option for Omicron therapy. Omicron is the dominant variant circulating worldwide and, at the end of February 2022, it was responsible for nearly all sequences reported to GISAID. Omicron is made up of several sublineages, where the most common are BA.1 and BA.2 (or Nextstrain clade 21K and 21L, respectively). At a global level, it is possible to say that the proportion of BA.2 has been increasing relative to BA.1 and in some countries it has been replacing it at high rates. In order to better assess the Omicron effectiveness on antibody escape, spread and infectious ability it is of the highest relevance to maintain a worldwide tight surveillance. Even though this variant has been associated with a lower death rate, it is important to highlight that the number of people becoming infected is concerning and that further unpredictable mutations may emerge as the number of infected people rises.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; VOCs; omicron; spike mutations; vaccine efficiency.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that there is no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Schematic representation of SARS‐CoV‐2 virus on the right and an amplification of the Spike protein with its representative domains on the left
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Current variants of concern (VOC) and their efficiency in escaping neutralising antibodies
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Spike mutations on Delta and Omicron variants, BA. 1 and BA. 2, when compared to the original Wuhan variant. Data extracted from
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. GISAID . GISAID initiative. Adv Virus Res. 2020;2008:1‐7. Accessed September 3, 2021. https://www.gisaid.org/
    1. Ge XY, Wang N, Zhang W, et al. Coexistence of multiple coronaviruses in several bat colonies in an abandoned mineshaft. Virol Sin. 2016;31(1):31‐40. 10.1007/s12250-016-3713-9 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhou P, Yang X, Wang XG, et al. A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature. 2020;579(7798):270‐273. 10.1038/s41586-020-2012-7 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Singh D, Yi SV. On the origin and evolution of SARS‐CoV‐2. Exp Mol Med. 2021;53(4):537‐547. 10.1038/s12276-021-00604-z - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Meyerholz DK, Lambertz AM, McCray PB. Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 distribution in the human respiratory tract implications for the Middle East respiratory syndrome. Am J Pathol. 2016;186(1):78‐86. 10.1016/j.ajpath.2015.09.014 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types