Molecular characteristics, immune evasion, and impact of SARS-CoV-2 variants

The persistent COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 has brought an enormous public health burden to the global society and is accompanied by various evolution of the virus genome. The consistently emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants harboring critical mutations impact the molecular characteristics of viral proteins and display heterogeneous behaviors in immune evasion, transmissibility, and the clinical manifestation during infection, which differ each strain and endow them with distinguished features during populational spread. Several SARS-CoV-2 variants, identified as Variants of Concern (VOC) by the World Health Organization, challenged global efforts on COVID-19 control due to the rapid worldwide spread and enhanced immune evasion from current antibodies and vaccines. Moreover, the recent Omicron variant even exacerbated the global anxiety in the continuous pandemic. Its significant evasion from current medical treatment and disease control even highlights the necessity of combinatory investigation of the mutational pattern and influence of the mutations on viral dynamics against populational immunity, which would greatly facilitate drug and vaccine development and benefit the global public health policymaking. Hence in this review, we summarized the molecular characteristics, immune evasion, and impacts of the SARS-CoV-2 variants and focused on the parallel comparison of different variants in mutational profile, transmissibility and tropism alteration, treatment effectiveness, and clinical manifestations, in order to provide a comprehensive landscape for SARS-CoV-2 variant research.

Automated summary

The persistent COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on global society since 2020, resulting in a huge burden on public health. The emergence of various SARS-CoV-2 variants with critical mutations has affected the molecular characteristics of viral proteins and exhibited different behaviors in terms of immune evasion, transmissibility, and clinical manifestations during infection. Several of these variants, known as Variants of Concern (VOC) according to the World Health Organization, have posed challenges to COVID-19 control efforts due to their rapid global spread and enhanced immune evasion from current antibodies and vaccines. The recent Omicron variant has further intensified global anxiety in the ongoing pandemic. Therefore, it is crucial to comprehensively investigate the mutational patterns, impact on viral dynamics, and influence on populational immunity in order to facilitate drug and vaccine development and inform global public health policymaking.