Journal
IMMUNE NETWORK
Volume 21, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
KOREA ASSOC IMMUNOLOGISTS
DOI: 10.4110/in.2021.21.e38
Keywords
COVID-19 Omicron; SARS-CoV-2; Spike (S) gene; Mutation; Receptor binding motif (RBM)
Categories
Funding
- National Research Foundation of Korea [NRF-2021R1F1A1057397]
- Main Research Program of the Korea Food Research Institute (KFRI) - Ministry of Science and ICT [E0210503-01]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The new SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant originating from South Africa in mid-November 2021 is highly transmissible and mutates rapidly, posing challenges to existing control measures. Better strategies are needed to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recently, a new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (B.1.1.529) Omicron variant originated from South Africa in the middle of November 2021. SARS-CoV-2 is also called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) since SARS-CoV-2 is the causative agent of COVID-19. Several studies already suggested that the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant would be the fastest transmissible variant compared to the previous 10 SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, interest, and alert. Few clinical studies reported the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant but there is insufficient time to perform actual experiments to prove it, since the spread is so fast. We analyzed the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, which revealed a very high rate of mutation at amino acid residues that interact with angiostatin-converting enzyme 2. The mutation rate of COVID-19 is faster than what we prepared vaccine program, antibody therapy, lockdown, and quarantine against COVID-19 so far. Thus, it is necessary to find better strategies to overcome the current crisis of COVID-19 pandemic.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available