Understanding the Secret of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern/Interest and Immune Escape

Abstract

The global pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), places a heavy burden on global public health. Four SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern including B.1.1.7, B.1.351, B.1.617.2, and P.1, and two variants of interest including C.37 and B.1.621 have been reported to have potential immune escape, and one or more mutations endow them with worrisome epidemiologic, immunologic, or pathogenic characteristics. This review introduces the latest research progress on SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest and concern, key mutation sites, and their effects on virus infectivity, mortality, and immune escape. Moreover, we compared the effects of various clinical SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and convalescent sera on epidemic variants, and evaluated the neutralizing capability of several antibodies on epidemic variants. In the end, SARS-CoV-2 evolution strategies in different transmission stages, the impact of different vaccination strategies on SARS-CoV-2 immune escape, antibody therapy strategies and COVID-19 epidemic control prospects are discussed. This review will provide a systematic and comprehensive understanding of the secret of SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest/concern and immune escape.

Modeling COVID-19 dynamic using a two-strain model with vaccination

“…Our mathematical model allowed us to evaluate which are the most important characteristics of the variants to become the dominant strain in a partially vaccinated population before the arrival of omicron in the US in early December 2021. Many of the variants of concern/interest have higher transmissibility than the origin variant that emerged from Wuhan, but as we can see this attribute is not sufficient to give rise to a dominant strain [27] . The alpha variant took a long duration to become the dominant strain in early 2021 despite being more transmissible [9] .…”

Oral administration of S-217622, a SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitor, decreases viral load and accelerates recovery from clinical aspects of COVID-19

“…Our in vitro experiments revealed that S-217622 exhibits remarkable antiviral potency against all VOCs. Current vaccines and monoclonal antibody medications target the viral spike protein, which accumulates amino acid variations among SARS-CoV-2 variants 16, 17 . In contrast, viral M pro is less divergent, leading to the comparable susceptibility of VOCs to S-217622.…”

“…Indeed, S-217622 exhibited antiviral activity against all VOCs, while neutralizing antibodies had different reactivities to some VOCs due to mutations in the spike protein (Extended Data Figs. 2a, b) 15, 17 . The remarkable antiviral potency of S-217622 was also reproduced in Vero-TMPRSS2 cells infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant (lineage BA.1) (Extended Data Figs.…”

COVID-19 Genetic Variants and Their Potential Impact in Vaccine Development

“…Additionally, the asparagine insertion at residue 146 may impact the viral S1 closed–open conformation, and ACE2 binding [ 58 ]. The Mu variant was also suggested to have a possible immune escape ability, since it was suggested to be strongly resistant to antibodies, and may affect the vaccine efficacy [ 13 , 59 ]. The Mu variant was not considered as a variant of concern, since its characteristics (virulence, resistance to vaccination, immune escape) have not yet been fully researched [ 60 ].…”