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According to a new study, the Covid Pirola variant (BA.2.86) attacks lung cells more severely than the alpha, beta and delta variants before it.
01/17/2024, 1:52 p.m. 01/17/2024, 7:20 p.m
Bruno Knellwolf / ch media
A new study by the Leibnitz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen shows that the Pirola variant (BA.2.86) attacks lung cells more severely. What Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta were already doing at the beginning of the pandemic. Even four years after SARS-CoV-2 appeared in China, the virus can still change massively and regain unfavorable properties.
When Pirola emerged late last summer, virus analysts realized that this variant was genetically very different from previous Omicron variants. The spike protein of the Pirola variant carries more than 30 mutations compared to the previous BA.2 variant. Pirola therefore did not follow the linear development path of its Omicron predecessors. This was certainly more contagious, but it caused virtually no more serious illness in the vaccinated population.
Pirola has regained a dangerous ability
Omicron had lost the ability to penetrate lung cells, making the sick patient less likely to develop pneumonia. Examination of the biological properties of the Pirola variant now shows that, in contrast to all previously circulating Omicron subvariants, Pirola can penetrate lung cells very efficiently using the TMPRSS2 enzyme. They were also able to show that S50L and K356T mutations in the Pirola spike protein are important for highly efficient entry into lung cells.
This improved penetration into lung cells indicates a more aggressive virus. However, the German researchers write that the formation of new infectious viruses by infected cells was reduced. This could reduce the spread and pathogenic potential of Pirola.
A sub-variant of Pirola is currently dominant in Switzerland and is also gaining ground worldwide. Juno (JN.1) differs from Pirola (BA.2.86) on the spike protein at a position called L455S. “Nine out of ten BA.2.86 viruses are JN.1,” explains virus analyst Richard Neher from the University of Basel. This mutation alone causes JN.1 to spread significantly faster than BA.2.86.
It is likely that Pirola’s ability to attack lung cells more effectively also applies to JN.1.
“However, the large JN.1 wave appears to have now passed, so this discovery should not worry us unduly.”
Richard Neher
According to infection biologist Stefan Pöhlmann, animal experiments must first be carried out to find out whether Pirola and its sub-variants actually make infected people sicker.
The Pirola variant, like all new variants, is certainly resistant to all therapeutic antibodies. But the results of the study show “that the new vaccine adapted to XBB.1.5 can provide robust, although probably only temporary, protection against infection by the Pirola variant,” explains the author of the study. Markus Hofmann study German health portal. An inquiry to the University Hospital of Zurich shows that no peak in pneumonia caused by Pirola was observed there.
(Translated and adapted by Chiara Lecca)
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