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Armengaud J, Delaunay-Moisan A, Thuret JY, van Anken E, Acosta-Alvear D, Aragón T, Arias C, Blondel M, Braakman I, Collet JF, Courcol R, Danchin A, Deleuze JF, Lavigne JP, Lucas S, Michiels T, Moore ERB, Nixon-Abell J, Rossello-Mora R, Shi ZL, Siccardi AG, Sitia R, Tillett D, Timmis KN, Toledano MB, van der Sluijs P, Vicenzi E
Environ Microbiol 22 (6) 1997-2000 [2020-06-00; online 2020-04-29]
The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is wreaking havoc throughout the world and has rapidly become a global health emergency. A central question concerning COVID-19 is why some individuals become sick and others not. Many have pointed already at variation in risk factors between individuals. However, the variable outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infections may, at least in part, be due also to differences between the viral subspecies with which individuals are infected. A more pertinent question is how we are to overcome the current pandemic. A vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 would offer significant relief, although vaccine developers have warned that design, testing and production of vaccines may take a year if not longer. Vaccines are based on a handful of different designs (i), but the earliest vaccines were based on the live, attenuated virus. As has been the case for other viruses during earlier pandemics, SARS-CoV-2 will mutate and may naturally attenuate over time (ii). What makes the current pandemic unique is that, thanks to state-of-the-art nucleic acid sequencing technologies, we can follow in detail how SARS-CoV-2 evolves while it spreads. We argue that knowledge of naturally emerging attenuated SARS-CoV-2 variants across the globe should be of key interest in our fight against the pandemic.
PubMed 32342578
DOI 10.1111/1462-2920.15039
Crossref 10.1111/1462-2920.15039