Covid-19: Is the UK still tracking the virus—and other questions answered

Mahase, Elisabeth

doi:10.1136/bmj.o2802

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 4 publications

(5 reference statements)

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“…A typical example is the combination or fusion of two BA.2 sublineages: BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75, which created the XBB sublineage with increased resistance to host immunity but hampered ability to infect host cells. 35 , 36 XBB.1.5 has further evolved from XBB with higher affinity to host cells while continuing to evade the bodies’ antiviral immunity, making it the most contagious variant of SARS‐CoV‐2 so far. 35 Since its first discovery in late 2022, it has overtaken other circulating strains and become dominant in the USA in such a short time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Intra‐VOC recombination events are very common, creating upgraded generations of Omicron sublineages. A typical example is the combination or fusion of two BA.2 sublineages: BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75, which created the XBB sublineage with increased resistance to host immunity but hampered ability to infect host cells 35,36 . XBB.1.5 has further evolved from XBB with higher affinity to host cells while continuing to evade the bodies’ antiviral immunity, making it the most contagious variant of SARS‐CoV‐2 so far 35 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A recombinant spike‐XBB.1.5 protein vaccine induces broad‐spectrum immune responses against XBB.1.5‐included Omicron variants of SARS‐CoV‐2

Alu

Hong

et al. 2023

MedComm

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The XBB.1.5 subvariant has drawn great attention owing to its exceptionality in immune evasion and transmissibility. Therefore, it is essential to develop a universally protective coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine against various strains of Omicron, especially XBB.1.5. In this study, we evaluated and compared the immune responses induced by six different spike protein vaccines targeting the ancestral or various Omicron strains of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in mice. We found that spike-wild-type immunization induced high titers of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) against ancestral SARS-CoV-2. However, its activity in neutralizing Omicron subvariants decreased sharply as the number of mutations in receptor-binding domain (RBD) of these viruses increased. Spike-BA.5, spike-BF.7, and spike-BQ.1.1 vaccines induced strong NAbs against BA.5, BF.7, BQ.1, and BQ.1.1 viruses but were poor in protecting against XBB and XBB.1.5, which have more RBD mutations. In sharp contrast, spike-XBB.1.5 vaccination can activate strong and broadly protective immune responses against XBB.1.5 and other common subvariants of Omicron. By performing correlation analysis, we found that the NAbs titers were negatively correlated with the number of RBD mutations in the Omicron subvariants. Vaccines with more RBD mutations can effectively overcome the immune resistance caused by the accumulation of RBD mutations, making spike-XBB.1.5 the most promising vaccine candidate against universal Omicron variants.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A recombinant spike‐XBB.1.5 protein vaccine induces broad‐spectrum immune responses against XBB.1.5‐included Omicron variants of SARS‐CoV‐2

Alu

Hong

et al. 2023

MedComm

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“…Scientists have nicknamed it “kraken” to distinguish it from the “variant soup” we are all navigating three years into the pandemic 1. The X signifies that these subvariants came about through a recombination of two or more sublineages—in this case BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75 2…”

Section: What Is Xbb15?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Covid-19: What do we know about XBB.1.5 and should we be worried?

Mahase¹

2023

BMJ

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What do we know about XBB.1.5 and should we be worried?The XBB.1.5 omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has been making headlines for weeks. Elisabeth Mahase reports what we know so far Elisabeth MahaseWhat is XBB.1.5? XBB.1.5 is yet another omicron subvariant, and follows on from XBB and XBB.1. Scientists have nicknamed it "kraken" to distinguish it from the "variant soup" we are all navigating three years into the pandemic. 1 The X signifies that these subvariants came about through a recombination of two or more sublineages-in this case BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75. 2 According to UCL Genetics Institute director Francois Balloux, a professor of computational systems biology, XBB.1.5 differs from XBB.1 through the addition of a F486P mutation in the spike protein."This mutation makes it slightly less immune evasive than its XBB.1 ancestor but more infectious, probably because it increases binding affinity to the human cell receptor ACE-2," he said.

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