The biological and clinical significance of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants.
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Authors
Tao, Kaiming
Tzou, Philip L
Gupta, Ravindra K
de Oliveira, Tulio
Kosakovsky Pond, Sergei L
Publication Date
2021-12Journal Title
Nat Rev Genet
ISSN
1471-0056
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Language
eng
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Tao, K., Tzou, P. L., Nouhin, J., Gupta, R. K., de Oliveira, T., Kosakovsky Pond, S. L., Fera, D., & et al. (2021). The biological and clinical significance of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants.. Nat Rev Genet https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-021-00408-x
Abstract
The past several months have witnessed the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants with novel spike protein mutations that are influencing the epidemiological and clinical aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These variants can increase rates of virus transmission and/or increase the risk of reinfection and reduce the protection afforded by neutralizing monoclonal antibodies and vaccination. These variants can therefore enable SARS-CoV-2 to continue its spread in the face of rising population immunity while maintaining or increasing its replication fitness. The identification of four rapidly expanding virus lineages since December 2020, designated variants of concern, has ushered in a new stage of the pandemic. The four variants of concern, the Alpha variant (originally identified in the UK), the Beta variant (originally identified in South Africa), the Gamma variant (originally identified in Brazil) and the Delta variant (originally identified in India), share several mutations with one another as well as with an increasing number of other recently identified SARS-CoV-2 variants. Collectively, these SARS-CoV-2 variants complicate the COVID-19 research agenda and necessitate additional avenues of laboratory, epidemiological and clinical research.
Identifiers
PMC8447121, 34535792
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-021-00408-x
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/329658
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