Infectious Disease
Patients with the SARS-CoV-2-alpha variant no longer carry viruses in their upper respiratory tract
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Source:
Luo CH, et al. The questionable SARS-CoV-2 variants B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 are not associated with higher virus loads. Presented at: World Microbe Forum. 20.-23. June 2021 (virtual meeting).
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Mostafa does not report any relevant financial information.
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According to the data presented at the World Microbe Forum, patients with the alpha variant of SARS-CoV-2 no longer carry viruses in their upper respiratory tract, despite increased transferability.
“The increase in B.1.1.7, which is now called the alpha variant at the end of February, and the way in which it has displaced the previously circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants has led us to the question of whether high viral loads in the samples of the upper respiratory tract to increase the transferability “, Heba Mostafa, MBBCh, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Director of Molecular Virology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Healio said. “A key variable that we tried to control when conducting our study was the days it took for symptoms to appear, as it has been shown that viral loads differ depending on the course of the infection.”
Patients with COVID-19 with the alpha variant no longer carry viruses in their upper respiratory tract, researchers said. Source: Adobe Stock.
Mostafa and colleagues investigated whether patients had a higher viral load and consequently increased excretion and transferability when they were infected with the alpha and beta variants (B.1.351). According to the study, the researchers used whole genome sequencing to identify the variants and then compared 134 variant samples with 126 control samples.
Overall, the study showed that viral loads in samples from patients infected with the alpha variant were not increased compared to the viral loads in samples from patients infected with the predominant lineages prior to the predominance of the alpha variant . Mostafa added that although the study originally aimed to evaluate the alpha and beta variants, very few patients were available with the beta variant, preventing proper evaluation.
According to the researchers, when they analyzed viral loads based on the age of the patients, they found that the control group had a significantly lower mean Ct value compared to the alpha and beta variant groups (P = 0.0062). That difference disappeared when the data was correlated with time from onset of symptoms, Mostafa added.
A clinical overview compared the severity of the disease and the results after infection with the variants compared to the control group. The researchers reviewed a total of 124 charts from patients infected with the two worrying variants and a total of 102 charts from patients infected with previous lineages. Overall, the researchers found an increase in symptomatic infections in the group infected with the variants compared to the control group (95.2% vs. 81.4%; p = 0.002) and an increase in hospitalization rates (20.2% vs. 12.7 .). %). While it’s still not clear why the variants are more transmissible, Mostafa said that based on the group’s mathematical model, the higher likelihood of symptoms with the alpha variant could explain the increase in transmission at the population level.
“Our main message is that in our cohort we have not noticed that patients with the alpha variant have more virus in their upper airways,” said Mostafa.
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