Nature Preprint: Immune Evasion and Pulmonary Viral Load in Delta Omicron Recombinant Subtypes

On April 4, 2022, the "Nature" preprint database published the research results of the Pasteur Institute in France, XD, the virological characteristics of the Delta Omicron recombinant subtype [1]

The viral load in the lungs and nose is lower than Delta and close to Omicron

All subtypes beginning with X indicate "recombinant" viral serotypes

This suggests that superinfection of Omicron is more common than other mutant strains

In epidemiology, if a patient is infected with a pathogen, the infection is cured, and then a new infection, called a superinfection, occurs with that pathogen

If the infection is still ongoing, the same pathogen invades again to cause the infection, which is called a superinfection

Due to its special RBD and Spike structure, Omicron is easy to form superinfection, so that the neutralizing antibodies of other popular strains cannot effectively neutralize Omicron, so superinfection is more likely to occur

However, the spike of SARS-CoV-2 is the main protein that determines its ability to spread and infect cells

However, it is difficult to predict whether these recombinant subtypes will overtake the original single subtype and form new epidemics

Reference: https:// Evasion and Pulmonary Viral Load in Omicron Mixed Subtype XE

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