New corona variant is spreading rapidly in India – soon also in Switzerland?

The hellhound was not as spicy as the name suggests. The omicron variant BQ.1.1 named Cerberus, derived from the Hellhound Kerberos of Greek mythology, had spread in November. Now Indian researchers warn about a new subvariant that has been given a nicer name. The variant FIG.1.16 is called Arcturus, after the brightest star in the northern sky.

A very poetic name for a pathogen that grows extremely fast in India. Because of him, the number of infections there increased by 281 percent within two weeks. From India, the number of deaths is reported to have increased by 17 percent at the same time.

This warning information comes from a tweet from Indian pediatrician Vipin Vashishta, who is also a member of the WHO Vaccine Group and a researcher at the Mangia Hospital and Research Center in Bijnor. The Indian population weathered the storm of BA variants and XBB.1.5 thanks to their immunity. If Arcturus succeeds in breaking this immunity, it could have global consequences, according to Vashishta.

Still, it’s not that far yet. According to virus analyst Richard Neher of the University of Basel, XBB.1.16 has not yet been sequenced in Switzerland. However, the virus expert adds that only a small proportion of corona samples are sequenced in Switzerland. XBB.1.16 has already been detected in Germany and other European countries, albeit in small numbers.

In Switzerland, the XBB.1.5 variant is currently very dominant. 89 percent, while the previously dominant Omicron variants BA.2.75, BA.4 and BQ.1 have only very small shares. “The XBB.1.16 variant essentially differs from XBB.1.5 in the additional spike mutations E180V and K478R,” says the Basel-based virus analyst. These two mutations could potentially lead to immune evasion, ie better bypassing of existing immunity in the population.

The head of the Institute of Virology at the University of Giessen says XBB.1.16 also has a number of other changes in the genome that don’t just affect the spike protein. The changes are in the ORF9b gene. This gene is involved in suppressing the interferon response. Interferons are messenger substances produced by infected cells to warn other cells of the infection and initiate countermeasures.

However, it’s not clear if this makes Arcturus more dangerous. Sars-CoV-2 has several of these interferon antagonists and ORF9b is not the strongest representative. Richard Neher therefore also says that it is currently not possible to say how sick Arcturus makes you.

In Switzerland, the situation regarding the dominance of the variants is not much different from that in India. “XBB or similar variants were also common in India before. Whether it has a clear advantage over XBB.1.5 is not clear,” says Neher. (aargauerzeitung.ch)