PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Abdelnabi, Rana
AU  - Foo, Caroline S.
AU  - Zhang, Xin
AU  - Lemmens, Viktor
AU  - Maes, Piet
AU  - Slechten, Bram
AU  - Raymenants, Joren
AU  - André, Emmanuel
AU  - Weynand, Birgit
AU  - Dallemier, Kai
AU  - Neyts, Johan
TI  - The omicron (B.1.1.529) SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern does not readily infect Syrian hamsters
AID  - 10.1101/2021.12.24.474086
DP  - 2021 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2021.12.24.474086
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/12/26/2021.12.24.474086.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/12/26/2021.12.24.474086.full
AB  - The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VoCs) has exacerbated the COVID-19 pandemic. End of November 2021, a new SARS-CoV-2 variant namely the omicron (B.1.1.529) emerged. Since this omicron variant is heavily mutated in the spike protein, WHO classified this variant as the 5th variant of concern (VoC). We previously demonstrated that the other SARS-CoV-2 VoCs replicate efficiently in Syrian hamsters, alike also the ancestral strains. We here wanted to explore the infectivity of the omicron variant in comparison to the ancestral D614G strain. Strikingly, in hamsters that had been infected with the omicron variant, a 3 log10 lower viral RNA load was detected in the lungs as compared to animals infected with D614G and no infectious virus was detectable in this organ. Moreover, histopathological examination of the lungs from omicron-infecetd hamsters revealed no signs of peri-bronchial inflammation or bronchopneumonia. Further experiments are needed to determine whether the omicron VoC replicates possibly more efficiently in the upper respiratory tract of hamsters than in their lungs.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.