November 8, 2023, 4:37 a.m. |
Reading time: 2 minutes
People sneeze and cough, countless people are on sick leave – and Corona is often behind it. In addition to the corona variant EG.5.1, BA.2.86 was also recently detected. A variant that brought new symptoms and worried experts from the start due to its mutations. Now a study has provided new insights into the corona variant, also known as Pirola.
In August, BA.2.86 or Pirola made headlines for the first time as a “variant under observation,” partly due to the assumption that it could be more contagious than previous corona variants. But is it really this? Japanese researchers have now gotten to the bottom of this question.
EG.5 and BA.2.86
Loud the paper, that the researchers published for their study, EG.5 is currently the dominant variant worldwide. In the summer, BA.2.86 was added, which has more than 30 mutations on the spike protein (S protein). Because the S protein plays an important role in the coronavirus’s infectivity and ability to evade the immune system, the WHO classified BA.2.86 as a variant under observation because it could potentially be very contagious.
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The study
Various animal models – primarily hamsters – were used in the study. More specifically, it was both in vitro tests and experiments with in vivo cells to which BA.2.86 was added. The scientists also used statistical analyzes of genomic surveillance data from six countries with clusters of Pirola cases to better understand the characteristics of the coronavirus variant BA.2.86.
How contagious is BA.2.86?
Modeling the epidemic dynamics of the new corona variants showed that BA.2.86 is, on average, significantly more contagious than EG.5. During experimental studies with hamsters, the researchers also found that BA.2.86 (Pirola) is less pathogenic than its predecessor omicron subline BA.2. This means that although it appears to be more contagious, it causes less severe illness than the earlier corona variant compared. Further experiments both with cells in test tubes and with live cells (from animals) revealed that Pirola appears to have a low ability to replicate. The variant of the coronavirus is therefore less able to replicate in infected cells – a possible explanation for the lower pathogenicity found.
Pirola could soon be the dominant variant
The findings suggest that the more contagious BA.2.86 (Pirola) could replace the currently dominant EG.5 variant. However, infected people are expected to have a lower viral load and less severe infections.