The recently discovered strain of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 “omicron” in Africa was able to infect the organism of rodents that carry the plague.
As you know, to penetrate into the cell, the virus uses special proteins-spikes (they form its “crown”), which bind to the ACE2 receptors on the membrane. As a result of a serious mutation, omicron, unlike delta, was able to bind to rodent ACE2, writes RIA Novosti with reference to a preprint of the study published on the bioRxiv website.
Note that it is not yet clear how this feature of the omicron will affect its spread – the fact is that this variant of the virus is already recognized as the most infectious at the moment. In addition, we are talking about a preprint of the study, that is, the results obtained by scientists have not yet been verified by their colleagues.
As “RG” already wrote, patients infected with the new strain of coronavirus complain, including of lower back pain and sore throat. At the same time, they are almost a quarter less likely to end up in hospitals than those who have contracted the “delta” strain.
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