RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The omicron (B.1.1.529) SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern does not readily infect Syrian hamsters
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.12.24.474086
DO 10.1101/2021.12.24.474086
A1 Rana Abdelnabi
A1 Caroline S. Foo
A1 Xin Zhang
A1 Viktor Lemmens
A1 Piet Maes
A1 Bram Slechten
A1 Joren Raymenants
A1 Emmanuel André
A1 Birgit Weynand
A1 Kai Dallemier
A1 Johan Neyts
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/12/26/2021.12.24.474086.abstract
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.