09-25-2022, 02:29 AM
Why Omicron Might Stick Around
Omicron, the 13th named variant of the coronavirus, seems to have a remarkable capacity to evolve new tricks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/scien...dJrbnLs6rI&smid=share-url
But BA.5 could be fading in the rearview mirror by winter, scientists said. Omicron has continued to evolve — likely by sometimes jumping among hosts, and sometimes hiding for months in one of them.
Since these new lineages belong to Omicron, they haven’t gotten a Greek letter of their own. But that doesn’t mean they’re just a slight twist on the original. Antibodies that could latch onto earlier forms of Omicron fare poorly against the newer ones.
“They could arguably have been given different Greek letters,” Dr. Robertson said.
BA.2.75.2 is among the newest of Omicron’s grandchildren, identified just last month. It’s also the most evasive Omicron yet, according to Dr. Murrell. In lab experiments, he and his colleagues tested BA.2.75.2 against 13 monoclonal antibodies that are either in clinical use or in development. It evaded all but one of them, bebtelovimab, made by Eli Lilly.
They also tested the antibodies from recent blood donors in Sweden. BA.2.75.2 did substantially better at escaping those defenses than other Omicron subvariants did.
Omicron, the 13th named variant of the coronavirus, seems to have a remarkable capacity to evolve new tricks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/scien...dJrbnLs6rI&smid=share-url
But BA.5 could be fading in the rearview mirror by winter, scientists said. Omicron has continued to evolve — likely by sometimes jumping among hosts, and sometimes hiding for months in one of them.
Since these new lineages belong to Omicron, they haven’t gotten a Greek letter of their own. But that doesn’t mean they’re just a slight twist on the original. Antibodies that could latch onto earlier forms of Omicron fare poorly against the newer ones.
“They could arguably have been given different Greek letters,” Dr. Robertson said.
BA.2.75.2 is among the newest of Omicron’s grandchildren, identified just last month. It’s also the most evasive Omicron yet, according to Dr. Murrell. In lab experiments, he and his colleagues tested BA.2.75.2 against 13 monoclonal antibodies that are either in clinical use or in development. It evaded all but one of them, bebtelovimab, made by Eli Lilly.
They also tested the antibodies from recent blood donors in Sweden. BA.2.75.2 did substantially better at escaping those defenses than other Omicron subvariants did.