THE SARS-CoV-2 OMICRON SUBLINEAGE BA.5

Abstract

The variants of Omicron sublineage BA.5 has 34 mutations in the spike protein, of which 17 are located in the receptor-binding domain (RBD), the mutations in RBD act to increase the binding ability between RBD and the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), as well as conferring a higher binding affinity between ACE2 and the S1 functional region in the spike protein. In addition, mutations H69d, V70d, L452R, F486V in the spike protein of BA.5 also increase the speed of virus spread and increase pathogenicity, leading to making BA.5 13 times more infectious than original SARS-CoV-2. Initial research in India shows that people who have received three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have protection against BA.5 and a reduced likelihood of severe disease transmission. The replication efficiency of BA.5 is 10 times worse in human lung tissue than the parent strain, so BA.5 causes less severe respiratory disease than the original SARS-CoV-2