London, December 11, 2011 : .Scientists are pondering over a variety of theories about the origins of the highly mutated Omicron strain, according to media reports.
The coronavirus variant, which first surfaced in late November, has so far been detected in more than 60 countries, as health officials worldwide try to contain its rapid spread.
What was surprising to scientists was that Omicron’s genetic traits bore more similarity to forms of the virus circulating last year than more recent strains, such as Beta and Delta, the Financial Times reported.
According to David Stuart (Professor of structural biology, Oxford University), the mystery lies in the “under-the radar” appearance of “a whole host of mutations”.
“It seems to have been hiding for a year,” added Sarah Otto, professor of evolutionary biology at the University of British Columbia.
The puzzle gave rise to competing theories — the virus emerged in an immunosuppressed person with HIV, anti-Covid drugs accelerated its evolution, and it crossed over into an animal species that later jumped back into humans.
Richard Lessells (infectious diseases doctor at University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban), says that Omicron is rooted somewhere in South Africa.
Late last year, an untreated HIV patient who was infected with Covid-19 for more than six months was discovered by a South African research team.The team found that the person had a string of mutations that affected the spike protein.
A UK study observed a similar process in a Covid patient with blood cancer, the report said.
The immune response of an untreated HIV patient would be “too weak to clear the virus but strong enough to drive the process of evolution”, explained Lessells.
He said, “This evolutionary path is unlikely to be common but it’s plausible for the emergence Omicron.”
The concern was echoed by Jonathan Li, director of the Harvard/Brigham virology specialty laboratory in Boston.He said that it was “striking” that two variants of concern – Beta and Delta – had arisen in southern Africa, a region with “large numbers of immunosuppressed individuals as a result of HIV infection”.
“The collision of high case numbers, low vaccine availability and decades of an HIV crisis means that the chance immunocompromised individuals have been carrying Covid for a while is very high,” said Otto.
One theory suggests that the mutations may have been caused in part by Merck’s Covid-19 antiviral pills.South Africa was one of the countries chosen to participate in clinical trials for the drug molnupiravir.
These trials began October 2020 according to William Haseltine who was a virologist.
The drug causes an explosion of errors to prevent the virus’ ability from spreading.
“The timing is right.I’m not saying it happened, but it could have happened,” Haseltine told FT.
Merck, however, has denied the claims.According to Merck, Haseltine’s unfounded claim has “no scientific basis” or merit.
Further, the theory that the mutation arose in animals before being passed back to humans “is not completely implausible but there is very little reason to believe that happened”, according to Stuart Ray, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University.
“When you look at the passage of human viruses in animals, they accumulate mutations that are suited to that host, not to humans.”
Meanwhile, medics and scientists have stressed that, regardless of how Omicron emerged, richer, western nations should focus on the need for vaccine equity for the pandemic to end.
rvt/pgh
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