Since the outbreak, the novel coronavirus has continued to mutate, and new strains emerge every few months. While the omicron strain was raging, a new variant began to appear in Europe and the United States---- Deltacron.
The image comes from the Internet
As the name suggests, Delta Kerong, or a combination of Delta and Omicron, is a combination of two variants. Speaking of which, the discovery and confirmation of the Deltacronn strain has also caused great controversy.
On 8 January 2022, researchers at the University of Cyprus suspected of discovering a recombinant COVID-19 strain of Delta and Omikejong in the local area, which is genetically closer to the Delta strain but has a large number of unique variants of the Omilkeron strain. For this reason, the strain was named "Deltacron" by the researchers. Subsequent sequencing of 1377 NEW CORONAVIRUS samples from the Republic of Cyprus revealed that 25 people were infected with the new strain.
However, as soon as the news appeared, it immediately caused a global discussion. Some believe that the so-called "Deltakron" is likely to be the result of contamination by laboratory gene sequencing. They argue that viral recombination often takes weeks to months or more for the two viruses to coexist, and that the laboratory does have a high probability of contamination in the current large number of Delta and Omilon-positive samples. The debate over whether the Deltakron strain really existed did not last long. Soon, researchers at the Institut Pasteur in France confirmed the existence of recombinant strain structures of two mutant strains through gene sequencing, and also artificially cultivated independent recombinant strains. Helix Laboratory in California, USA also published data, in more than 29,000 cases of new crown positive samples, 20 cases of both Delta and Omilkeron strains, of which 1 case contains "Delta Kerong" in addition to these two strains, and the other 2 samples contain different versions of "Delta Kerong".
On March 15, 2022, the World Health Organization confirmed the discovery of Deltacron in several countries. This recombinant strain is produced by delta and Omicron strains infecting the same human cells and exchanging genetic material with each other during viral replication. Its backbone comes from the Delta variant, while the spinous protein (S protein) on the surface of the virus comes from the Omikejong variant. Research on changes in epidemiology and severity of this strain is ongoing.
The picture shows the structure of the Deltacron strain S protein after the reorganization of Delta and Omicron (picture from the reference [5]) At present, the scientific community's understanding of the new strain is completely insufficient, and we can only remain vigilant in the face of the severe and complex situation of the global epidemic. Medical laboratories should do a good job in daily sanitize work, and individuals should conscientiously do a good job in daily protection and consciously cooperate with epidemic prevention and control work.
postscript
The mutation of the new crown virus is mainly concentrated in the S protein, and the current mainstream new crown virus nucleic acid detection reagent targets are mostly conservative areas such as the ORF1ab gene and the N gene, and the various mutants can still be effectively detected. Therefore, standardizing sampling and nucleic acid testing are still effective measures for the screening of the new crown virus.