Quantifying the immunological distinctiveness of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants in the context of prior regional herd exposure.

ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic has seen the persistent emergence of immune-evasive SARS-CoV-2 variants under the selection pressure of natural and vaccination-acquired immunity. However, it is currently challenging to quantify how immunologically distinct a new variant is compared to all the prior variants to which a population has been exposed. Here, we define "Distinctiveness" of SARS-CoV-2 sequences based on a proteome-wide comparison with all prior sequences from the same geographical region. We observe a correlation between Distinctiveness relative to contemporary sequences and future change in prevalence of a newly circulating lineage (Pearson r = 0.75), suggesting that the Distinctiveness of emergent SARS-CoV-2 lineages is associated with their epidemiological fitness. We further show

SUBMITTER: Niesen MJM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9308564 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature