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Experts are puzzling: How did the dangerous Omicron variant come about?

2021-12-18T16:41:30.035Z


Experts are puzzling: How did the dangerous Omicron variant come about? Created: 12/18/2021, 05:32 PM From: Tom Offinger The Omikron variant determines the pandemic events around the globe. But where does the dangerous mutation come from? A search for answers. Munich - In November a new mutant of the coronavirus was reported for the first time, today every child knows it: the Omikron variant f


Experts are puzzling: How did the dangerous Omicron variant come about?

Created: 12/18/2021, 05:32 PM

From: Tom Offinger

The Omikron variant determines the pandemic events around the globe.

But where does the dangerous mutation come from?

A search for answers.

Munich - In November a new mutant of the coronavirus was reported for the first time, today every child knows it: the Omikron variant from South Africa.

Thanks to her, the number of infections is currently skyrocketing in Great Britain and Denmark, but the mutant has not yet assumed a dominant role in Germany, but the general concern is palpable everywhere.

Experts around the world are currently trying to decipher the consequences of an infection, but also the origin of the new variant - a very difficult undertaking.

Omicron variant: how did the new mutant of the coronavirus come about?

A new virus variant is usually not surprising, as the Delta mutant proved last year, which made headlines for the first time almost exactly 12 months before Omikron. On the other hand, the "extent of the changes in this variant in this phase of the pandemic" is sensational, as Jörg Timm, head of the Institute for Virology at the Düsseldorf University Hospital, told the

editorial network Germany

(RND) at the beginning of December.

The rapid rate of transmission of the new mutant already seems to be more or less established, as can be deduced from the skyrocketing number of Omicron cases in Great Britain. The puzzle about the origin of the variant, however, is much more complicated. “It's still a bit mysterious how Omikron suddenly came out of nowhere,” says Timm. “Suddenly” is actually the wrong word: if you believe a report by the

RND

, the family tree of the mutant can be traced back a few months.

According to the current state of knowledge, an early form of Omikron developed as a virus type of its own even before the emergence of alpha and delta, believes Wolfgang Preiser from Stellenbosch University near Cape Town.

Preiser is a member of the research consortium that is discovering the variant for the first time and is convinced that Omikron did not emerge from an existing variant, but rather developed in parallel and unnoticed.

Omicron variant: Discussion of three possible theories

Three theories are currently determining the origin of the discussion about Omikron: The first focuses on an animal host in which the mutant could have developed.

Omicron could then have jumped from a rodent to humans.

The Covid-19 virus is said to have come to light in the first place via a similar route.

The unique mutations support this thesis, but also the second assumption that omicrons could have originated in a person with a weakened immune system.

Three theories behind the origin of the omicron variant:

1) Development in an animal host, e.g. a rodent

2) Development in a person with a weakened immune system, for example people with HIV

3) Development in a small, isolated, and largely recovered population

This group also includes people with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). Due to their weak immune system, these people cannot get rid of the virus immediately, so it remains in the infected person's body for a longer period of time. The immune system continues to exert pressure, forcing the virus to mutate. "In the past, it has been observed in immunosuppressed people with a so-called chronic Sars-CoV-2 infection - an infection that lasts for several weeks - that the virus changes over time," confirmed Adam Grundhoff from Leibniz- Institute for Experimental Virology towards the

RND

.

At the same time, this is also not the most likely hypothesis, argues Grundhoff. Above all, the multitude of mutations speaks against the hypothesis: "In an HIV-infected person or another immunocompromised patient who is being treated in hospital, I might expect a few of these mutations, But not this amount. ”Grundhoff concludes that there are not so many mutations to be expected in patients who have been treated with appropriate antibody drugs.

Omikron variant: Christian Drosten supports the third theory

The third and last thesis, however, makes more sense for the virologist from Hamburg.

It says that Omicron came from a human population that was somewhat isolated and in which many were already recovered and immune.

"That means that the virus was exposed to high pressure in a relatively small population for a long time and therefore developed an immune escape." Grundhoff also receives support from Germany's best-known virologist Dr.

Christian Drosten.

He suspects no development specifically in South Africa, but generally in southern Africa, especially during the so-called winter wave.

"There were many infections there for a long time, and enormous evolutionary pressure is required for the development of such a virus," Drosten recently argued to

Science

-Magazine.

As with the other theories, there are dissenting voices: Andrew Rambaut, Professor of Molecular Evolution at the University of Edinburgh, argues, for example, that such an isolated place in the world is difficult.

He also considers the idea of ​​a completely isolated evolution without any appearance in other places to be very unrealistic.

In the end, it is also not unlikely that none of the three theories discussed has anything to do with the origin of the omicron variant.

Since it cannot even be said one hundred percent how the coronavirus was originally transmitted to humans, the answer behind Omikron should also be a long time coming.

One thing is certain, however: the mutant will not be the last of its kind.

(to)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-12-18

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