New COVID variant less threatening than feared
New COVID variant less threatening than feared
New COVID Variant BA.2.86 Shows Promising Signs in Lab Tests
TUESDAY, Sept. 5, 2023 – When new COVID variant BA.2.86 emerged in late July, scientists had concerns about its ability to evade immunity. But early lab tests seem to be easing those fears, as well as concerns over the variant’s ability to spread widely.
Also known as Pirola, the BA.2.86 variant has undergone significant mutations, with more than 30 changes to its spike protein compared to its close ancestor BA.2 and to XBB.1.5. This remarkable evolution is similar to what occurred with the Omicron variant when it first emerged.
However, scientists, including those in Sweden and China, are finding in lab tests that the variant appears to be less concerning than initially thought. U.S. scientists are also set to release their own lab results soon.
Experimental Findings
The ongoing lab experiments utilize virus isolated from patients or models of the virus’ spike proteins grafted onto the body of a different virus. In China, researchers have determined that BA.2.86 elicits a different immune system response than earlier COVID variants, enabling it to partially escape immunity.
One significant finding is that there was a twofold drop in the ability of vaccination and recent infection to neutralize BA.2.86, compared to viruses from XBB.1.5. However, BA.2.86 was also found to be 60% less infectious than XBB.1.5 variants.
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“I would say it will slowly circulate in the population. It will not be able to compete with other fast prevailing variants,” remarked Yunlong Cao from the Biomedical Innovation Center at Peking University, referring to variants like EG.5 and FL.1.5.1, which are currently spreading in the United States.
At the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, researchers conducted experiments using blood samples from human donors collected in late 2022, as well as late August, to test the impact of antibodies against BA.2.86. While the older blood samples couldn’t stop BA.2.86, the later samples performed better, showing promising signs.
Encouraging Results and Future Outlook
“The news is better than I was expecting,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, former White House COVID-19 response coordinator, in a social media post. “And [it] makes me more encouraged that the new upcoming vaccine will have a real benefit against the current dominant variant [EG.5], as well as BA.2.86.”
Both studies have limitations, as researchers were testing models of the virus rather than the actual virus. However, the results thus far have been encouraging. It isn’t clear yet whether BA.2.86 or its offspring will outcompete the currently circulating variants, and there is no data yet on its severity. Nevertheless, the discovery that our antibodies do not appear to be completely powerless against BA.2.86 is promising.
“My friends, this is not the second coming of Omicron. If it were, it is safe to say we would know by now,” reassured Dr. Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist who is co-director of Harvard University’s Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, in a social media post.
The BA.2.86 variant has already spread to the United States and 10 other countries, with Denmark reporting the most sequences. About three dozen sequences have been observed in a global repository over the past month.
The findings from these lab tests provide a glimmer of hope in the ongoing battle against COVID-19. While it is crucial to remain vigilant, the potential for a new vaccine to effectively combat BA.2.86 and other variants offers optimism for the future.
More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on COVID variants.
SOURCES: CNN
