Giuditta De Lorenzo

TL;DR: The results uncover a multipronged strategy utilized by SARS-CoV-2 to antagonize essential cellular processes to suppress host defenses.

TL;DR: In this article , the authors demonstrate substantial evasion of neutralization by Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 variants in vitro using sera from individuals vaccinated with ChAdOx1, BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273.529.

TL;DR: Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 show a lower severity phenotype in a hamster model of pathogenicity which maps specifically to the spike gene, raising the concerning possibility that future variants with large antigenic distance from currently circulating and vaccine strains will not necessarily display the lower intrinsic severity seen during Omicron infection.

TL;DR: It is shown that immunity from natural infection (without vaccination) is more protective than two doses of vaccine but inferior to three doses, and fundamental changes in the Omicron entry process in vitro, towards TMPRSS2-independent fusion, representing a major shift in the replication properties of SARS-CoV-2.

TL;DR: The SARS-CoV-2 reverse genetics toolkit as discussed by the authors can be used to rescue infectious virus through transient transfection (without in vitro transcription or additional expression plasmids).