The World Health Organization (WHO) is investigating a new variant of Omicron called BA 2.75, which was detected in India at the beginning of last month and has already spread to ten countries, spreading very rapidly.
Soumya Swaminatahn, WHO’s chief scientist in India, said through social media that this subvariant "does not yet have an official name, but some scientists call it BA 2.75."
The scientist clarified that it is "a subvariant of the so-called second generation of Ómicron" and has "limited sequences that allow for analysis," but BA 2.75 "seems to have few mutations in the Spike protein and of course holds the key to the virus" to enter the cell.
For Swaminatahn, "it is early to know if this subvariant has properties for an additional immune invasion" and he is still waiting for what the WHO Scientific Committee determines, "which are analyzing the data around the world."
Swaminatahn also said that "this is a subvariant that is very different from the previous ones and that has enough properties for us to view it with concern."
According to the Israel News portal, BA 2.75 has nine unusual mutations in its Spike protein and has spread to countries around the world faster than other variants of this type.
It was first found in a sequence taken in India in early June and has since been detected in Australia, Canada, Japan, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Within weeks, the variant appeared in more than 80 streams around the world.
The number of mutations and their apparently rapid spread over a wide geographical area mean that scientists are keeping an eye on it.
Shay Fleishon of the Central Virology Laboratory at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel, called the new subvariant "alarming" and stressed that while it is too early to know if it will be the "next dominant variant," it could mean a future trend.
Fleishon explained in a Twitter thread that in recent months there has been a trend of variants based on Omicron lineages with mutations in the S1 section of the Spike protein and, specifically, in the part of the spike protein that the virus used to connect and enter cells, at a level that had not been seen in the second generation variants.
Until now, however, these second-generation variants have only been found in a few cases within one region. This is the first time a second-generation variant of Ómicron has spread to multiple regions.
The Bloom Laboratory at the Fred Hutch Research Institute tweeted that the variant is "worthy of monitoring" due to the "appreciable antigenic shift" compared to its parent, BA.2. The laboratory pointed out two mutations as key: G446S and R493Q.
Scientists agreed that more information is needed before knowing how important BA.2.75 will be, and it is expected that in the coming weeks it will be known whether it can compete with BA.5 or not.
