They detect a super variant of the coronavirus and there is already concern in the scientific community

Just born, it is already arousing concern in the world scientific community. It’s the super variant BA 2.75. With a remarkable power of contagion, five times higher than Omicron 5, considered in turn 17 times faster to spread than previous variants. born in India and this Monday there are very few confirmed cases, no more than forty.

But the distribution is already international due to the new super variant there are cases in Australia, Canada, Germany, Great Britain and New Zealand, where the laboratories have been able to deposit at least one BA 2.75 sequence.

The newcomer strengthens the Ómicron variants that are relaunching the pandemic in the world with particular spread in Europe despite the summer, but helped by millions of tourists who have abandoned the precautions, fed up with enduring a third year of Covid_19.

The authorities have satisfied and the result is that the virus is circulating at full capacity. In Italy and Great Britain they point out that there are more than three million infected with Ómicron 5 in each country, the hardest hit in Europe. In Italy, which one this Tuesday recorded 132,270 cases and 94 deathsthe dead are approaching 170,000 and in Great Britain 200,000 since the start of the pandemic in February 2020.

The subvariants of Ómicron have become dominant around the worldwith new, rapidly evolving mutations.

mutations

Virologist Tom Peacock, of Imperial College London, said the most worrying thing to follow with urgent attention is that the new super variant has 45 mutations with BA.5 and 15 which are exclusive.

Among these, 8 mutations of the Spike protein stand out, which facilitates the entry of the virus into human cells. In particular, there are five mutations in the N-terminal domain, “which are valuable targets for the neutralization of antibodies,” said the scientist.

But BA 2.75 booked other surprises. For example, there are four mutations in the receptor domain region, which acts as another bridge to allow the virus to enter cells via the ACE2 receptor.

Lipi Thukral, one of India’s leading genomics scientists, said mutations other than Omicron 5 are present on the outer surface of the novel coronavirus. Two of them are closely associated with significant changes in the protein structure of the Spike protein.

These data show that Ómicron BA. 2.75 infects people who have already been vaccinated or who have suffered from the disease and been treated.

“At the moment no information to detect whether the subvariant has the potential to cause severe infectionsThukral said.

Early studies indicate that increased efficiency in infections does not translate into an increase in serious pathologies. And apparently the vaccinated who are infected with BA 2.75 they are better protected against the disease compared to unvaccinated, as has been the case with all variants of Omicron so far.

Rome, correspondent