NIAID VIA THE NEW YORK TIMES
A symbol provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases shows a colored scanning electron micrograph of a mobile (red) inflamed with omicron, yellow virus particles. Cases of COVID-19 detected in wastewater have led some scientists to question whether JN. 1, the strain that causes an explosive winter surge, selectively targets people’s intestinal tracts.
Cases of COVID-19 detected in wastewater have led some scientists to question whether JN. 1, the strain that causes an explosive winter surge, selectively targets people’s intestinal tracts.
The evidence is incredibly limited and theoretical, and there is no data to indicate that more people are suffering from severe digestive illness due to COVID. Still, there’s no doubt that the coronavirus has replaced their needs to enter cells, said Stuart Turville, a virologist. This would possibly be consistent with more effective infection of specific tissues, including the gut.
This is just one of the many debates revolving around JN. 1. The variant is so highly contagious and immune-evasive that some scientists use its own Greek name to distinguish it from its highly infectious ancestor, omicron.
“Its mode of entry has diverged significantly from what we saw in 2020,” said Turville, whose University of New South Wales lab has been tracking viral entry pathways since the start of the pandemic. “It’s presently the peak of this trajectory.”
JN. 1 is the fastest-growing variant over the past two years. The World Health Organization on Tuesday named it a hot variant because of its immediate spread and potential to increase the burden of the respiratory virus in the Northern Hemisphere. The newest booster formulas are expected to offer coverage against this virus, according to the organization.
The strain emerged in August from the ultra-mutated BA.2.86, or Pirola variant. While Pirola wasn’t especially remarkable, a hallmark mutation that produced JN.1 has resulted in greater transmissibility and immune evasiveness, University of Tokyo scientists reported earlier this month.
In rapid increase
JN. 1 accelerates an end-of-year COVID wave. In the U. S. , it accounted for up to 29% of circulating strains as of Dec. 8, and COVID-related hospitalizations are rising rapidly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. he said last week. He warned that low vaccination rates against COVID and other respiratory viruses can lead to more severe illness and overload the fitness formula for the rest of the winter.
Detections in wastewater have increased uniformly and exponentially in several countries: Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Singapore.
“People are detecting it in wastewater at as high a rate as they were detecting omicron when it first emerged,” said Kanta Subbarao, director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in Melbourne, who chairs the agency’s technical advisory group on COVID vaccine composition. “But so far, we’re not seeing a parallel or concomitant increase in hospitalization. I think we have to watch that space.”
More Clues
Increased emergency room visits and other medical knowledge will offer clues about the severity of the disease caused by JN. 1, said Subbarao, who is also a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infections and Immunity. at the University of Melbourne. ” We don’t know if it’s more related to the gut, for example,” he said.
The wastewater findings could reflect high circulation in communities, rather than more frequent or more intense gut infections that result in greater or prolonged shedding of the coronavirus in stool.
Diarrhea was no longer regularly reported through COVID in November in the Netherlands, which has been tracking symptom awareness since 2020.
Viral Targets
The coronavirus has long been shown to infect the gut. A downward trend in lung infections has been observed since Omicron replaced the delta variant in late 2021.
Turville’s studies provide a credible explanation for the update and why JN. 1 might prefer the gastrointestinal tract, said Ryan Hisner, an Indiana school professor whose self-taught genomic studies identified changes in the gastrointestinal tract. Evolution of the pandemic virus.
Still, “it’s not clear,” Hisner said. “We have no direct evidence. “
It is difficult to separate the adjustments inherent to the virus from the role that vaccines and past infections have played in causing the immune formula to recognize and attack the virus before it reaches the lungs, he said.
Although the characteristics of the disease are not substantially modified by JN. 1, the virus takes a new direction to enter mobiles, according to Turville. While previous editions have preferentially latched on to a cleaved edition of the ACE-2 mobile surface protein, the new variant represents the coronavirus’s most powerful predilection to date for an uncleaved edition of the moving door.
“I don’t see it going beyond JN. 1,” Turville said. “JN. 1 is so extreme. The key now is how this translates into which tissue niches it now inhabits.
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