The latest domestic research: after winning the new crown, it is difficult to resist Omicron

A study conducted by the research team of the State Key Laboratory of Virology of Wuhan University in collaboration with the scientific research team of the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the serum neutralization ability of the Aumechjong variant after one year of recovery in Wuhan has dropped sharply, and the research results were recently published in the international academic journal Emerging Microbes & Infections. Lan Ke, director of the State Key Laboratory of Virology at Wuhan University, said in an interview with the Global Times that the study showed that the immune escape of the Aomi Kerong variant on people who have recovered from the new crown is very significant. But another data from this study suggests that covid-19 survivors and vaccinators who have completed vaccination with a booster vaccine have significantly increased their levels of neutralizing antibodies to Omi kerong.

On 11 January, WHO released a weekly epidemiological report on COVID-19, which noted that with the spread of the Olmiqueron strain, the prevalence of the Delta strain began to decline, and community transmission of the Olmiqueron strain has begun in many countries. According to WHO, the Omikeron strain has significant transmission advantages and is rapidly replacing other strains as the main epidemic strain. At present, many foreign studies have shown that the Omiljung variant has a strong immune escape ability, which can reduce the neutralization activity of many monoclonal antibodies and weaken the immune protection effect of vaccinated or infected people who have recovered.

Previously, the effect of the Aomi Kerong strain on the serum neutralization activity of the new crown rehabilitation patients has not been extensively studied in a large number of recovered patients, especially in the early wild-type virus infection of the new crown recovery, the research team of the State Key Laboratory of Virology of Wuhan University and the scientific research team of the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention have analyzed the infection characteristics and immune escape ability of the Aomi Kerong mutant strain.

Lan Ke said that thanks to strong anti-epidemic measures, the new crown pneumonia epidemic that broke out in Wuhan at the end of 2019 was effectively controlled in April 2020. Subsequently, the research team of the State Key Laboratory of Virology of Wuhan University collected more than 200 serums from patients infected with the new crown virus after recovering one year during the outbreak of the epidemic in Wuhan, and found that the serum of these convalescent patients still had high levels of neutralizing antibodies, of which 180 serums still had a strong level of protection against the D614G variant of the new crown virus, but the protection level of alpha, beta, gamma and Delta mutant strains decreased to varying degrees.

Lan Ke said that in order to further study whether the serum of these early survivors can effectively neutralize the Omilton mutation strain, the researchers of the two teams compared the differences in the immune escape levels of the three different variants of Omilon, Delta and D614G, and the results showed that under 100 times dilution conditions, the average neutralization efficiency of the 180 recovered serums on the new coronavirus D614G, Delta, and Omilon strains was 80%, 71%, and 13%, respectively. This suggests that the serum of most COVID-19 survivors has a high neutralizing effect on wild-type strains, but the neutralization effect on Delta and TheOmilon variants is significantly reduced, with the immune escape of the Semikron strain being the most significant.

In order to more accurately assess the degree of reduction in the neutralization effect of the serum of the new crown convalescent on the mutant strain, the researchers of the two teams further used the serum of the 24 convalescents with the highest neutralization activity in the D614G variant to test the neutralization potency of the D614G mutant strain, Delta and Omi kerong. The results showed that the neutralizing activity of the 24-person recovered serum on the Omikejung variant was reduced by about 10.14 times compared with the D614G strain, compared with the Delta strain, and only about 1.79 times lower relative to the Delta strain.

In addition, the researchers of the two teams also collected serum samples from Wuhan rehabilitated patients after vaccination and reinforced injections, and tested the neutralization effect of antibodies in serum against the three variants of Omicron, Delta and WT-D614G, and the results showed that the vaccine booster needle could increase the level of neutralizing antibodies to Aomi Kerong in the recovered people by 2-3 times.

Lan Ke said that although there are research data showing that the protection of existing vaccines against the Omiljung variant is significantly reduced, the data from this study and other related studies before show that both those who have recovered from covid-19 and vaccinated people should be vaccinated with a booster injection to strengthen their immunity to new mutant strains such as Omilon, reduce the risk of infection and alleviate post-infection symptoms.

"Studies abroad have found that serum collected from patients recovering from COVID-19 within 12 months of symptom onset, as well as those who received two doses of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine (collected within 5 months of vaccination), could hardly neutralize the Omiljung variant. However, the serum of vaccinators who received the Pfizer vaccine booster needle for one month still had a neutralizing effect on the Omikejung variant. Therefore, based on the existing research data, in order to cope with the Opichron variant and the new variants that may appear in the future, we should encourage the continuous updating of existing vaccines and antibody drugs, and increase the research and development of broad-spectrum β coronavirus vaccines and small molecule antiviral drugs to cope with the continuous epidemic and continuous evolution of the new crown virus. Lan Ke said.

Previously, Because of its strong spread and relatively weak pathogenicity, It was interpreted as a "big flu" by some foreign media and self-media, and Lan Ke did not fully agree with this view. According to real-world statistics, the Olmikron variant is more contagious than the currently popular Delta variant, but the rate of severe illness and mortality is relatively low. Given the high rate of vaccination and previous infection in the endemic area of Omiljung, its true pathogenicity cannot be underestimated and remains to be further observed. "It is worth being alarmed that the Omikeron variant strain may still become more pathogenic by mutation or recombination with other strains. Therefore, it may be too early to assert that the Aomi kerong variant is a 'big flu'. ”

Source: Global Times- Global Network/Fan Wei

Column Editor-in-Chief: Gu Wanquan Text Editor: Li Linwei Caption Source: Figure Worm Image Editor: Xu Jiamin

Source: Author: Global Times- Global Network