Ómicron: A new variant of the corona virus may have appeared in mice | Hypothesis of a research conducted in China

A study Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) Supported the theory of variation OmigronThe World Health Organization (WHO) has classified it as “worrying” because of its rapid spread. It may have appeared in rats.

Cablera Telem (telam.com.ar) They were able to determine whether Ómicron was created by a strain that spread by mid-2020 But they could not find any intermediate version that would explain many of these mutations.

The Chinese investigation, directed by Jianguo Xu and published in the journal Biosafety and Biosecurity, proposes in this sense The intermediate host between the 2020 variant and the Omigron variant is often a mouse.

According to this hypothesis explored by the CCDC, by 2020 the virus would have gone from humans to mice and the cycle between rodents would have created a variant with new mutations that would later return to humans. According to Professor Sue, More work is needed to confirm this theory..

“This study calculated the average number of mutations in the five major types and examined the major mutations in the virus ‘S’ protein, where infection develops,” Sue explained. Thus discovered The Omigron variant contains mutations in the protein at five major sites (K417, E484, Q493, Q498 and N501).

“This mutation shows that the virus has adapted to attack mice’s cells. Furthermore, it shows that the Omigron and Gamma lineages may have been in circulation by mid-2020, which supports the hypothesis that the Omigron may have evolved into a non-human animal species. “

“What do we believe,” he noted The corona virus slowly accumulates mutations over time in mice, which spreads to humans through reverse zoonosis“.

These findings suggest that Researchers should focus on the types of corona virus isolated from wildlife, Especially rodents. “If Omigran is confirmed to be derived from mice, the effects of its circulation on non-human hosts could pose new challenges in infection prevention and control,” the researcher concluded.