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. 2022 Nov;7(11):1756-1761.
doi: 10.1038/s41564-022-01246-1. Epub 2022 Oct 4.

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant emerged under immune selection

Chee Wah Tan  1 , Wan Ni Chia  2 , Feng Zhu  2 , Barnaby E Young  3   4   5 , Napaporn Chantasrisawad  6 , Shi-Hsia Hwa  7   8 , Aileen Ying-Yan Yeoh  2 , Beng Lee Lim  2 , Wee Chee Yap  2 , Surinder Kaur M S Pada  9 , Seow Yen Tan  3   10 , Watsamon Jantarabenjakul  6   11 , Lim Kai Toh  12 , Shiwei Chen  2 , Jinyan Zhang  2 , Yun Yan Mah  2 , Vivian Chih-Wei Chen  2 , Mark I-C Chen  3   4 , Supaporn Wacharapluesadee  6 , Alex Sigal  7   13   14 , Opass Putcharoen  6   11 , David Chien Lye  3   4   5   15 , Lin-Fa Wang  16   17
Affiliations

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant emerged under immune selection

Chee Wah Tan et al. Nat Microbiol. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant (B.1.1.529 lineage) escapes antibodies that neutralize the ancestral virus. We tested human serum panels from participants with differing infection and vaccination status using a multiplex surrogate virus neutralization assay targeting 20 sarbecoviruses. We found that bat and pangolin sarbecoviruses showed significantly less neutralization escape than the Omicron variant. We propose that SARS-CoV-2 variants have emerged under immune selection pressure and are evolving differently from animal sarbecoviruses.

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