scispace - formally typeset
Open AccessJournal ArticleDOI

Trajectory of Growth of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Variants in Houston, Texas, January through May 2021, Based on 12,476 Genome Sequences.

Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
In this article, the trajectory of SARS-CoV2 variants circulating in a major metropolitan area, documents B.1.7 as the major cause of new cases in Houston, TX, and heralds the arrival of B.617 variants in the metroplex.
Abstract
Certain genetic variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are of substantial concern because they may be more transmissible or detrimentally alter the pandemic course and disease features in individual patients. SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences from 12,476 patients in the Houston Methodist health care system diagnosed from January 1 through May 31, 2021 are reported here. Prevalence of the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) variant increased rapidly and caused 63% to 90% of new cases in the latter half of May. Eleven B.1.1.7 genomes had an E484K replacement in spike protein, a change also identified in other SARS-CoV-2 lineages. Compared with non-B.1.1.7-infected patients, individuals with B.1.1.7 had a significantly lower cycle threshold (a proxy for higher virus load) and significantly higher hospitalization rate. Other variants [eg, B.1.429 and B.1.427 (Epsilon), P.1 (Gamma), P.2 (Zeta), and R.1] also increased rapidly, although the magnitude was less than that in B.1.1.7. Twenty-two patients infected with B.1.617.1 (Kappa) or B.1.617.2 (Delta) variants had a high rate of hospitalization. Breakthrough cases (n = 207) in fully vaccinated patients were caused by a heterogeneous array of virus genotypes, including many not currently designated variants of interest or concern. In the aggregate, this study delineates the trajectory of SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating in a major metropolitan area, documents B.1.1.7 as the major cause of new cases in Houston, TX, and heralds the arrival of B.1.617 variants in the metroplex.

read more

Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI

Multiple spillovers from humans and onward transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer

TL;DR: The discovery of widespread infection of white-tailed deer indicates their establishment as potential reservoir hosts for SARS-CoV-2, a finding with important implications for the ecology, long-term persistence, and evolution of the virus, including the potential for spillback to humans.
Journal ArticleDOI

Delta Variants of SARS-CoV-2 Cause Significantly Increased Vaccine Breakthrough COVID-19 Cases in Houston, Texas

TL;DR: The integrated analysis indicates that vaccines used in the United States are highly effective in decreasing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, hospitalizations, and deaths as mentioned in this paper .
Journal ArticleDOI

Efficacy of mRNA, adenoviral vector, and perfusion protein COVID-19 vaccines

TL;DR: In 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) separately developed a categorization system for differentiating new strains of SARS-CoV-2 into variants of concern and variants of interest as mentioned in this paper .
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI

Efficacy of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern 202012/01 (B.1.1.7): an exploratory analysis of a randomised controlled trial.

Katherine R. W. Emary, +69 more
- 10 Apr 2021 - 
TL;DR: A post-hoc analysis of the efficacy of the adenoviral vector vaccine, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222), against B.1.7, emerged as the dominant cause of COVID-19 disease in the UK from November, 2020 as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI

Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7 pseudovirus by BNT162b2 vaccine-elicited human sera.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors tested SARS-CoV-2-S pseudovirus bearing either the Wuhan reference strain or the B.1.7 lineage spike protein with sera of 40 participants who were vaccinated in a previously reported trial with the messenger RNA-based COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2.
Posted ContentDOI

mRNA-1273 vaccine induces neutralizing antibodies against spike mutants from global SARS-CoV-2 variants

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assessed the neutralizing capacity of sera from human subjects or non-human primates (NHPs) that received mRNA-1273 vaccination, using two orthogonal VSV and lentivirus PsVN assays expressing spike variants of 20E (EU1), 20A.7, and B.1.351.
Related Papers (5)