Lebanese Ministry of Information
A newly-discovered Covid variant that combines mutations from both Omicron and Delta is “the real thing,” scientists have said.
Earlier in the year, concern was raised after a lab in Cyprus claimed to have found evidence of a Delta-Omicron recombination event – when the two variants co-infect a patient and exchange genetic material to produce a new viral offspring – but experts said the findings were false.
Viral genomes with a similar profile to the Deltacron variant in France have also been discovered in Denmark and the Netherlands, but it has yet to be established if these recombinants derive from the same ancestor.
“The French cluster appears to be a validated occurrence where a recombination event has given rise to a virus fit enough to circulate,” said Dr Stephen Griffin, a virologist at the University of Leeds.
The “backbone” of the Deltacron variant is derived from Delta, but its spike protein, which allows the virus to gain entry to human cells, originates from Omicron.
“There are multiple scenarios that can play out here in terms of what this means for people that become infected as this combination of viral proteins may behave differently to either parent,” said Dr Griffin.
There is no clear data yet whether Deltacron is more infectious or deadly than its predecessors. Dr Griffin said the “fact it persists in the fact of Omicron” suggests its transmissibility “can’t be too shoddy”…
The Independent
Samuel Lovett
