Drivers of adaptive evolution during chronic SARS-CoV-2 infections.

ABSTRACT: In some immunocompromised patients with chronic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, considerable adaptive evolution occurs. Some substitutions found in chronic infections are lineage-defining mutations in variants of concern (VOCs), which has led to the hypothesis that VOCs emerged from chronic infections. In this study, we searched for drivers of VOC-like emergence by consolidating sequencing results from a set of 27 chronic infections. Most substitutions in this set reflected lineage-defining VOC mutations; however, a subset of mutations associated with successful global transmission was absent from chronic infections. We further tested the ability to associate antibody evasion mutations with patient-specific and virus-specific features and found that

SUBMITTER: Harari S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9307477 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature