Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Solna, Sweden.
ABC Labs, Biomedicum, 171 77 Solna, Sweden.
Med. 2022 Sep 9;3(9):636-643.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.medj.2022.07.007. Epub 2022 Aug 8.
Throughout the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, multiple waves of variants of concern have swept across populations, leading to a chain of new and yet more contagious variants dominating COVID-19 cases. Here, we tracked the remarkably rapid shift from Omicron BA.1 to BA.2 sublineage dominance in the Swedish population in early 2022 at a day-by-day basis.
Using a custom SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 lineage-typing RT-PCR assay, we analyzed 174,933 clinical upper airway samples collected during January to March 2022.
Our study demonstrates the feasibility and reliability of parallel lineage assignment of select variants at population scale, tracking the dominant sublineage transition from BA.1 to BA.2 at day-to-day resolution and uncovering nearly 2-fold higher levels of viral RNA in cases infected with Omicron BA.2 relative to BA.1.
Our data provide unique insights into the Omicron BA.1 to BA.2 transition that occurred in Sweden during early 2022, and later, across the world. This may help to understand the increased transmissibility of the BA.2 variant.
在整个 SARS-CoV-2 大流行期间，多种关注变体席卷了人群，导致一连串新的、更具传染性的变体主导了 COVID-19 病例。在这里，我们在 2022 年初以每天为基础的方式追踪了瑞典人群中 Omicron BA.1 向 BA.2 亚谱系优势的惊人快速转变。
我们使用定制的 SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 谱系分型 RT-PCR 检测，分析了 2022 年 1 月至 3 月期间采集的 174933 例临床上呼吸道样本。
我们的研究证明了在人群规模上并行分配选择变体的可行性和可靠性，以每天为分辨率跟踪从 BA.1 到 BA.2 的主导亚谱系转变，并发现感染 Omicron BA.2 的病例中的病毒 RNA 水平几乎高了两倍相对于 BA.1。
我们的数据提供了对 2022 年初瑞典以及后来全球发生的 Omicron BA.1 到 BA.2 转变的独特见解。这可能有助于了解 BA.2 变体的传染性增加。
