Why is the Aomi Kerong variant so much more "mild" than the previous COVID-19 variant?
According to foreign media reports, a series of recent studies on animals and human tissues explain for the first time the reasons behind it - Omi kerong caused much less damage to the lungs, mainly in the upper respiratory tract "force". Roland Ailes, a computational biologist at the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), said, "It can be said that a disease that manifests itself mainly in the upper respiratory system is emerging. ”
The COVID-19 pandemic has been going on for nearly two years and has become a part of people's lives. The coronavirus variant is weakening, which undoubtedly gives people who are tired of the epidemic a little new hope for the new year. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), also said in his New Year's statement that he was "optimistic" about defeating the coronavirus pandemic in 2022.
Omikejon became a "disease of the upper respiratory tract"?
When Omilon was first reported in South Africa last November, scientists knew it had more than 50 genetic variants, but they couldn't predict how different it would behave from earlier variants based on variation alone.
Over the past month, multiple research teams around the world have observed and studied the Aumilon variant to understand its properties. While scientists were working on their research, Omikeron quickly swept the globe, easily infecting people who had been vaccinated or had a history of infection before. However, despite the surge in infections in Omikeron, hospital admissions are low and there are fewer severe cases than other variants. Multiple studies published recently have come to the same conclusion, and Omikeron has indeed become milder than variants such as Derta.
▲ Global scientists study the characteristics of Omi kerong in the laboratory
Why is Omicron relatively weak? On December 29, scientists in Japan and the United States found that multiple studies of mice and hamsters showed that infections caused by Omikerong were much less damaging, often confined primarily to the upper respiratory tract: the nose, throat, and respiratory tract; and far less harmful to the lungs. Previous variants of the coronavirus often cause lung damage and severe breathing difficulties. The study also found that the animals infected by TheOmexjon lost less weight and had lower mortality rates.
The more moderate nature of Omilon may be an anatomical problem. Dr. Michael Diamond, a virologist at the University of Washington, and his colleagues found that hamsters contain the same level of the Omiljun virus in their noses as animals infected with the early coronavirus, but that their lungs have only one-tenth or even less of the other variants.
Researchers at the University of Hong Kong have made similar findings. They studied some of the tissue removed from the human respiratory tract during surgery and found that Omilon grew more slowly in 12 lung samples than Delta and other variants.
The researchers also studied the infection of bronchial tissue, the tube that carries air to the lungs, and found that Omexon grew faster within these bronchial cells than Delta or the original coronavirus.
The scientists also say the findings need further study, such as testing in monkeys or examining the respiratory tract of humans who were actually infected with Omeikoron; once further evidence is available, it could explain why Omexjong infection has a lower admission rate than Delta and other variants.
Why is it so difficult for Amikeron to invade the lungs?
The team of Professor Ravindra Gupta, a virologist at the University of Cambridge, may provide a molecular-level explanation for Thermocrynd's lack of "power" in the lungs.
Many cells in the lungs are known to carry a protein called TMPRSS2 on their surfaces, which helps the virus get into lung cells. Dr. Gupta's team found that this protein did not help Omiclon very well, and it was not firmly grasped. As a result, Amikeron was less able to infect lung cells in this way than Delta. A team of researchers at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom independently came to the same conclusion.
At the same time, the virus can also infect cells that do not make the TMPRSS2 protein through another route, and cells located higher in the respiratory tract often do not carry this protein, which may also explain why Omilon is at a higher level in the respiratory tract.
▲ University of Cambridge virologist Ravendra Gupta According to the network
Dr. Gupta speculates that Omi kerong has become a "disease of the upper respiratory tract," which is destroyed mainly in the throat and nose. This also means that the variant is more likely to be excreted into the air in the form of droplets and encounter its new host.
On December 30, the number of new confirmed cases in the United States exceeded 700,000 in a single day. These new studies explain why Omikeron mainly causes mild disease, but it has not really solved the problem of its strong spread. Scientists have known that part of the reason for the strong infectivity of Omikejong is its ability to evade antibodies and therefore infect vaccinated people more easily than other variants, but Omiljung may have other biological advantages.
Last week, researchers reported that a variant of the variant may have weakened the body's innate immunity. It is an alarm system that quickly activates the body's immune system when a virus enters the nose and the first sign of invasion appears. But more trials are needed.
However, the highly transmissible "answer may be simple, such as a lot more virus in human saliva and nasal cavity.". Dr. Sarah Chery, a virologist at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, adds that there could also be other reasons, such as its more stable airborne or better ability to infect new hosts.
Edit | paragraphs of Du Bo
Proofreading | He Xiaotao
Article source: Red Star News
The Delta strain is still in the global pandemic, and the Olmikron strain is adding fuel to the fire,