#covid 19 kappa variant

[tezlivenews]

डेल्टा प्लस के बाद अब यूपी में कोरोना के Kappa Variant की दस्तक, मिले दो मरीज

डेल्टा प्लस के बाद अब यूपी में कोरोना के Kappa Variant की दस्तक, मिले दो मरीज

लखनऊ. उत्तर प्रदेश (Uttar Pradesh) में डेल्टा प्लस वेरिएंट (COVID-19 Delta Plus Variants) के बाद अब कोरोना के एक नए स्ट्रेन की एंट्री हो चुकी है. देवरिया और गोरखपुर में डेल्टा प्लस स्ट्रेन के दो मामले सामने आने के बाद अब दो रोगियों में कोविड -19 का कप्पा स्ट्रेन (Coronavirus Kappa Strain) पाया गया है. कुछ दिन पहले किंग जॉर्ज मेडिकल कॉलेज में 109 नमूनों की जीनोम सीक्वेंसिंग में इस वायरस का पता चला…

[krazyshoppy]

मुंबई में कोरोना के दो नए वेरिएंट ने दी दस्तक, दो मरीजों में पाया गया संक्रमण

मुंबई में कोरोना के दो नए वेरिएंट ने दी दस्तक, दो मरीजों में पाया गया संक्रमण

<p>देशभर में पिछले कई हफ्तों से कोरोना मामलों को लेकर राहत है. जिसे देखते हुए लगभग तमाम तरह की पाबंदियां भी हटा ली गई हैं. लेकिन अब मुंबई में कोरोना के दो नए वेरिएंट ने दस्तक दी है. बताया गया है कि मुंबई में कप्पा वेरिएंट का एक मरीज पाया गया है, वहीं कोरोना के "XE" वेरियंट से संक्रमित मरीज की भी पहचान हुई है. जिसके बाद स्वास्थ्य विभाग अलर्ट पर है.&nbsp;</p> Source link

[lospeakerscorner]

La variante Delta

Carlo Alfaro, Dirigente Medico di Pediatria presso gli Ospedali Riuniti Stabiesi (Na), ove è titolare di Incarico professionale di consulenza, studio e ricerca di Adolescentologia, ci informa sull’a diffusione delle varianti Delta e Kappa La variante Delta del Sars-Cov-2 (“B.1.617.2”) è stata identificata per la prima volta in India durante la violenta ondata epidemica in aprile e maggio, assieme…

[nosferdoc]

[hummingzone]

Covid-19: 2 Kappa variant samples traced in Lucknow genome study; here is what experts have to say

Owing to its infectious nature, many health experts have also said that double mutant and its descendant Delta variant may have been one of the major causes behind the ferocious second wave in the country. In a significant development, the Uttar Pradesh government revealed the results of a genome sequencing study conducted at Lucknow’s King George Medical University. Out of the 109 samples that…

[dbpnews]

Explained: What Is Covid's Kappa Variant And Should You Be Worried?

Explained: What Is Covid’s Kappa Variant And Should You Be Worried?

Kappa variant is linked to the B.1.617 constellation of mutations. (Representational) Cities across India are gradually emerging out of lockdowns necessitated by the devastating second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, and the focus is on vaccination to reach herd immunity. However, now, a series of more transmissible variants of the virus have surfaced, the Delta variant being the most worrisome,…

[noname30]

I feel that when the greek alphabet ends they will start calling next covid-19 variants like these fraternities or sororities in US - i.e. alpha kappa delta

[greenvedicsblog]

Nagaland reports 93 Delta variant cases, 2 Kappa, 1 Alpha cases

Guwahati: Genome sequencing of 98 COVID-19 samples from Nagaland revealed the presence of Delta variant (B.1.617.2) in as many as 93 of them on Friday.The state’s health and family welfare department informed that the results of the samples for whole genome sequencing were sent to National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani in West Bengal.Moreover, two cases of Kappa variant and once of Alpha were also detected. The results of two samples are yet to be received. https://www.time8.in/nagaland-reports-93-delta-variant-cases-2-kappa-1-alpha-cases/

[mi6-rogue]

A Tale of Two Waves: Diverse Genomic and Transmission Landscapes Over 15 Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pune, India

Preliminary report; The modern response to pandemics, critical for effective public health measures, is shaped by the availability and integration of diverse epidemiological outbreak data. Genomic surveillance has come to the forefront during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic at both local and global scales to identify variants of concern. Tracking variants of concern (VOC) is integral to understanding the evolution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in space and time. Combining phylogenetics with epidemiological data like case incidence, spatial spread, and transmission dynamics generates actionable information. Here we discuss the genome surveillance done in Pune, India, through sequencing 10,496 samples from infected individuals and integrating them with multiple heterogeneous outbreak data. The rise and fall of VOCs along with shifting transmission dynamics in the time interval of December 2020 to March 2022 was identified. Population-based estimates of the proportion of circulating variants indicated the second and third peak of infection in Pune to be driven by VOCs Kappa (B.1.617.1), Delta (B.1.617.2), and Omicron (B.1.1.529) respectively. Integrating single nucleotide polymorphism changes across all sequenced genomes identified C (Cytosine) > T (Thymine) and G (Guanine) > T (Thymine) substitutions to dominate with higher rates of adaptive evolution in Spike (S), RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), and Nucleocapsid (N) genes. Spike Protein mutational profiling during and pre-Omicron VOCs indicated differential rank ordering of high-frequency mutations in specific domains that increased the charge and binding properties of the protein. Time-resolved phylogenetic analysis of Omicron sub-lineages identified specific recombinant X lineages, XZ, XQ, and XM. BA.1 from Pune was found to be highly divergent by global sequence alignment and hierarchical clustering. Our ''band of five'' outbreak data analytics which includes the integration of five heterogeneous data types indicates that a strong surveillance system with comprehensive high-quality metadata was critical to understand the spatiotemporal evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 genome in Pune. We anticipate the use of such integrated workflows to be critical for pandemic preparedness in the future. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.05.22281203v1?rss=1%22&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr Read more ↓

[didanawisgi]

ABSTRACT

The rapid development of vaccines to prevent infection by SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19 makes necessary to compare the capacity of the different vaccines in terms of development of a protective humoral response. Here, we have used a highly sensitive and reliable flow cytometry method to measure the titers of antibodies of the IgG1 isotype in blood of healthy volunteers after receiving one or two doses of the vaccines being administered in Spain. We took advantage of the multiplexed capacity of the method to measure simultaneously the reactivity of antibodies with the S protein of the original strain Wuhan and the variants B.1.1.7 (Alpha), B.1.617.2 (Delta) and B.1.617.1 (Kappa). We found significant differences in the titer of anti-S antibodies produced after a first dose of the vaccines ChAdOx1 nCov-19/AstraZeneca, mRNA-1273/Moderna, BNT162b2/Pfizer-BioNTech and Ad26.COV.S/Janssen. Most important, we found a relative reduction in the reactivity of the sera with the Alpha, Delta and Kappa variants, versus the Wuhan one, after the second boosting immunization. These data allow to make a comparison of different vaccines in terms of anti-S antibody generation and cast doubts about the convenience of repeatedly immunizing with the same S protein sequence.

[talltalestogo]

I CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE I

Two new Omicron variants are spreading. Will they drive a new U.S. surge?

The subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 may dodge immunity, especially in unvaccinated people, possibly causing a spike in infections worldwide.

New versions of Omicron are again causing a surge of COVID-19 cases in South Africa, and studies show that these new subvariants are so different from the original version of Omicron that immunity generated from a previous infection may not provide much protection.

Dubbed BA.4 and BA.5, the new subvariants are nearly identical to each other, and both are more transmissible than the Omicron BA.2 subvariant. In South Africa, they replaced the BA.2 strain in less than a month. They are now responsible for a spike in South Africa’s COVID-19 cases, which have tripled since mid-April.

“If you were unvaccinated, what you got is almost no immunity to BA.4 and BA.5,” says Alex Sigal, a virologist at the Africa Health Research Institute and at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. “There might be some immunity that may be enough to protect against severe disease, but not sufficient to protect against symptomatic infection.”

South Africa is the worst hit country on the continent, with more than 100,523 official deaths from COVID-19—and that’s likely a gross underestimate according to a recent study in The Lancet. With BA.4 and BA.5 now on the rise, the death toll is likely to grow, as only a third of the South African population has received a COVID-19 vaccine; the rate of vaccination is even lower in the rest of Africa.

For now, the subvariant known as BA.2.12.1 remains dominant in the U.S., causing new hospitalizations to spike in the last week by more than 17 percent nationally and by as much as 28 percent in the Great Lakes area, and Washington D.C. and the surrounding region. But the new subvariants have spread to more than 20 countries across North America, Asia, and Europe, and already 19 cases of BA.4 and six cases of BA.5 have been identified in the U.S.

HOW ARE BA.4 AND BA.5 DIFFERENT FROM OTHER OMICRON VARIANTS?

South Africa has become a bright spot within Africa for sequencing samples of SARS-CoV-2. This swift sequencing was critical in alerting the world in December 2021 to the discovery and surge of the original Omicron strain, called BA.1. Now the same team has discovered BA.4 and BA.5.

“The BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants were identified because South Africa is still doing the vital genetic sequencing that many other countries have stopped doing,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the World Health Organization, at a press conference on May 4. “In many countries we’re essentially blind to how the virus is mutating. We don’t know what’s coming next.”

That sequencing has revealed that for both BA.4 and BA.5, the spike protein is similar to the one in BA.2, except for six mutations. The spike protein is the part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that anchors to receptors on human respiratory cells and allows the virus to infect the cell.

“The three modifications present in the spike of BA.4 and BA.5, compared to BA.2, are most likely associated to antibody escape and improved viral fitness and binding to the ACE2 receptor,” says Olivier Schwartz, head of the Virus and Immunity Unit at Institut Pasteur in France.

Two of the changes on the spike can make these viruses more infectious, says Ravindra Gupta, an immunologist and infectious diseases specialist at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. as shown by his previous research. The upside is that these same mutations make it easy for researchers to rapidly distinguish the new subvariants from BA.2 in a standard PCR test.

Another mutation present in BA.4 and BA.5 is also found in other variants of concern, including Delta, Kappa, and Epsilon. It increases infectivity and weakens immunity from existing antibodies, according to a preliminary study from China.

The Chinese study also shows that a rare change seen before only 54 times among 10 million viral sequences helps BA.4 and BA.5 to evade BA.1-specific antibodies. This same mutation also enabled SARS-CoV-2 to infect mink and ferrets during April 2020 outbreaks in mink farms.

In addition to these spike protein mutations, BA.4 and BA.5 also have small changes in viral proteins whose exact function are not well known.

WHERE DID BA.4 AND BA.5 EVOLVE?

A preliminary genetic analysis estimates that the new subvariants may have originated in South Africa at around the same time as other Omicron variants, in mid-December 2021 and early January 2022, respectively. But scientists don’t yet know their origin for sure.

“BA.4 and BA.5 may well have originated from the same kind of common source as BA.1, BA.2, and BA.3, but it's not certain,” says Richard Lessells, an infectious diseases doctor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. He is part of the nation’s sequencing team that discovered all of these Omicron variants.

Possible routes of evolution may have been an animal host, such as a mouse; or it may have gestated in some immunocompromised patients, as has been shown to occur through accumulation of mutations during a chronic infection by Gupta.

“The alternative is that BA.4 and BA.5 may have evolved from BA.2,” says Lessells.

BA.4 AND BA.5 DODGE PREVIOUS IMMUNITY

In the first study of BA4 and BA.5 on immunity, which has not yet been peer reviewed, scientists led by Sigal, of the Africa Health Research Institute, isolated live viruses from nasal swabs. The scientists then ran tests to see whether antibodies from unvaccinated and vaccinated people who had been infected with the original Omicron BA.1 strain just a few months ago were able to neutralize these new variants. Sigal’s team discovered that these antibodies weren’t able to protect against symptomatic infection.

That’s concerning, because in low- and middle-income countries less than one in six people have yet received a single dose of any COVID-19 vaccine. Even in the United States, nearly 23 percent of the population remains unvaccinated.

“BA.4/5 data are interesting and somewhat surprising,” says Gupta, referring to the sharp decline in immunity seen in studies so far. “It is greater than I would have predicted,” he says. “It may be that [the] biology of this virus has completely changed in terms of how quickly it's able to evolve.”

The South African study does have some good news for vaccinated people: “We found that you get a lot of protection from vaccines, even if you got infected with Omicron despite being vaccinated—a lot more protection than if you weren't vaccinated going forward,” says Sigal.

Sigal’s study also suggests that BA.4 and BA.5 may cause less severe disease, especially among vaccinated people, compared to previous Omicron variants. This may explain why fewer people seem to be getting severe disease despite the rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations in South Africa. The median length of hospitalization also appears to be shorter, but deaths due to COVID-19 are rising faster in patients of older age.

“BA.4/5 data do reinforce the need for boosters in vulnerable people to keep the antibody levels high,” says Gupta.

In the meantime, Moderna has published data on its new mRNA-1273.211 candidate booster vaccine—which mixes ancestral spike protein with a mimic of the Beta variant spike. Although not yet peer reviewed, the results seem to show superior protection for up to six months even against the Omicron variant.

“Vaccines are designed to prevent severe disease, to keep us out of hospital and off the ventilator,” says Lessells. “And they are still doing that extremely well, in the face of all these different variants.”

_

[divyabhashkar]

Good Morning India: New variants of Omicron XE and Kappa unveiled in India

Good Morning India: New variants of Omicron XE and Kappa unveiled in India

A new case of Covid 19 has come up in the country. A new variant of the Corona has been spotted in Mumbai. This is the first case of Corona’s new variant XE in India. This type has been seen in a woman who reached Mumbai after traveling from South Africa. At the same time, a case of Corona’s Kappa variant has also come to light. Source by [author_name]

[kupwaratimes-fan]

First cases of Omicron XE, Kappa variant in India detected in Mumbai

First cases of Omicron XE, Kappa variant in India detected in Mumbai

First cases of Omicron XE, Kappa variant in India detected in Mumbai   Mumbai: The first case of the more transmissible Omicron XE variant of COVID-19 has been detected in India on Wednesday in Mumbai, according to a civic health official. Omicron XE is a mutation of two strains of the Omicron variants, BA.1 and BA.2 and is referred to as a “recombinant”. According to early indications, this…

[kimskashmir]

India's first XE Covid-19 variant case reported in Mumbai

MUMBAI — The first case of XE, a more transmissible Covid-19 variant, was detected in Mumbai on Wednesday, a civic health official said. A case of the Kappa variant was also detected during a sero survey, the official said, adding the results came in genome sequencing of 376 samples, the 11th batch of testing in the local genome sequencing lab. As per the survey, the Omicron variant was found in…