Center of Excellence in Clinical Virology, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Arch Virol. 2023 Jan 3;168(1):26. doi: 10.1007/s00705-022-05666-6.
The global COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first detected in China in December 2019. To date, there have been approximately 3.4 million reported cases of COVID-19 and over 24,000 deaths in Thailand. In this study, we investigated the molecular characteristics and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in Thailand from 2020 to 2022. Two hundred sixty-eight SARS-CoV-2 isolates, collected mostly in Bangkok from COVID-19 patients, were characterised by partial genome sequencing. Moreover, the viruses in 5,627 positive SARS-CoV-2 samples were identified as viral variants - B.1.1.7 (Alpha), B.1.617.2 (Delta), B.1.1.529 (Omicron/BA.1), or B.1.1.529 (Omicron/BA.2) - by multiplex real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays. The results revealed that B.1.36.16 caused the predominant outbreak in the second wave (December 2020-January 2021), B.1.1.7 (Alpha) in the third wave (April-June 2021), B.1.617.2 (Delta) in the fourth wave (July-December 2021), and B.1.1.529 (Omicron) in the fifth wave (January-March 2022). The evolutionary rate of the viral genome was 2.60 × 10 (95% highest posterior density [HPD], 1.72 × 10 to 3.62 × 10) nucleotide substitutions per site per year. Continued molecular surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 is crucial for monitoring emerging variants with the potential to cause new COVID-19 outbreaks.
全球 COVID-19 大流行是由新型严重急性呼吸系统综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）引起的，于 2019 年 12 月在中国首次发现。迄今为止，泰国已报告约 340 万例 COVID-19 病例和超过 24000 例死亡病例。在这项研究中，我们调查了 2020 年至 2022 年期间泰国 SARS-CoV-2 的分子特征和进化。通过部分基因组测序，对从曼谷 COVID-19 患者中收集的 268 株 SARS-CoV-2 分离株进行了特征描述。此外，通过多重实时逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）检测，鉴定了 5627 份阳性 SARS-CoV-2 样本中的病毒为变异株-B.1.1.7（Alpha）、B.1.617.2（Delta）、B.1.1.529（Omicron/BA.1）或 B.1.1.529（Omicron/BA.2）。结果表明，B.1.36.16 导致了第二波（2020 年 12 月至 2021 年 1 月）的主要爆发，B.1.1.7（Alpha）在第三波（2021 年 4 月至 6 月），B.1.617.2（Delta）在第四波（2021 年 7 月至 12 月），B.1.1.529（Omicron）在第五波（2022 年 1 月至 3 月）。病毒基因组的进化率为每年每个核苷酸位置 2.60×10（95%最高后验密度[HPD]，1.72×10 至 3.62×10）核苷酸取代。对 SARS-CoV-2 的持续分子监测对于监测具有引发新的 COVID-19 爆发潜力的新兴变异体至关重要。
