Center for Biotechnology, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, PO BOX, 127788, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Sci Rep. 2022 Aug 29;12(1):14669. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-16967-w.
Since the declaration of SARS-CoV-2 outbreak as a pandemic, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) public health authorities have adopted strict measures to reduce transmission as early as March 2020. As a result of these measures, flight suspension, nationwide RT-PCR and surveillance of viral sequences were extensively implemented. This study aims to characterize the epidemiology, transmission pattern, and emergence of variants of concerns (VOCs) and variants of interests (VOIs) of SARS-CoV-2 in the UAE, followed by the investigation of mutations associated with hospitalized cases. A total of 1274 samples were collected and sequenced from all seven emirates between the period of 25 April 2020 to 15 February 2021. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated multiple introductions of SARS-CoV-2 into the UAE in the early pandemic, followed by a local spread of root clades (A, B, B.1 and B.1.1). As the international flight resumed, the frequencies of VOCs surged indicating the January peak of positive cases. We observed that the hospitalized cases were significantly associated with the presence of B.1.1.7 (p < 0.001), B.1.351 (p < 0.001) and A.23.1 (p = 0.009). Deceased cases are more likely to occur in the presence of B.1.351 (p < 0.001) and A.23.1 (p = 0.022). Logistic and ridge regression showed that 51 mutations are significantly associated with hospitalized cases with the highest proportion originated from S and ORF1a genes (31% and 29% respectively). Our study provides an epidemiological insight of the emergence of VOCs and VOIs following the borders reopening and worldwide travels. It provides reassurance that hospitalization is markedly more associated with the presence of VOCs. This study can contribute to understand the global transmission of SARS-CoV-2 variants.
自 2020 年 3 月宣布 COVID-19 大流行以来，阿拉伯联合酋长国（阿联酋）公共卫生当局已采取严格措施，尽早减少传播。由于这些措施，广泛实施了停飞、全国范围内的 RT-PCR 和病毒序列监测。本研究旨在描述 COVID-19 病毒在阿联酋的流行病学、传播模式以及关注变体（VOCs）和感兴趣变体（VOIs）的出现，并调查与住院病例相关的突变。总共收集了 1274 个样本，这些样本来自 2020 年 4 月 25 日至 2021 年 2 月 15 日期间的七个酋长国。系统进化分析表明，在大流行早期，有多次 COVID-19 病毒传入阿联酋，随后根分支（A、B、B.1 和 B.1.1）在当地传播。随着国际航班的恢复，VOCs 的频率飙升，表明阳性病例的 1 月高峰。我们观察到，住院病例与 B.1.1.7（p<0.001）、B.1.351（p<0.001）和 A.23.1（p=0.009）的存在显著相关。死亡病例更可能出现在 B.1.351（p<0.001）和 A.23.1（p=0.022）存在的情况下。逻辑和脊回归显示，51 个突变与住院病例显著相关，其中最高比例来自 S 和 ORF1a 基因（分别为 31%和 29%）。我们的研究提供了关于 VOCs 和 VOIs 在边境重新开放和全球旅行后出现的流行病学见解。它证实了住院治疗与 VOCs 的存在明显相关。本研究有助于了解 COVID-19 病毒变体的全球传播。
