Transmissibility, infectivity, and immune evasion of the SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 variant

• Published in: The Lancet infectious diseases Vol. 23; no. 11; pp. e460 - e461
• Main Authors: Uriu, Keiya, Ito, Jumpei, Kosugi, Yusuke, Tanaka, Yuri L, Mugita, Yuka, Guo, Ziyi, Hinay, Alfredo A, Putri, Olivia, Kim, Yoonjin, Shimizu, Ryo, Begum, MST Monira, Jonathan, Michael, Saito, Akatsuki, Ikeda, Terumasa, Sato, Kei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2023; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Cell culture; Consortia; Genomes; Immune evasion; Infectious diseases; Infectivity; Medical research; Mutation; Pharmaceuticals; R&D; Research & development; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Vaccines; Japan
• ISSN: 1473-3099; 1474-4457
• DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(23)00575-3

On Aug 17, 2023, WHO designated BA.2.86 as a variant under monitoring.3 We first estimated the effective reproduction number (Re) of BA.2.86 based on genome surveillance data until Sept 4, 2023, in Denmark, where multiple XBB subvariants including EG.5.1 are currently co-circulating, and 12 BA.2.86 sequences were reported (appendix p 10). The fact that the lower infectivity of BA.2.86 does not translate into its lower Re is reminiscent of the findings for omicron BA.1 and BA.2: although BA.1 and BA.2 are less infectious than other variants such as delta in cell culture, these omicron variants exhibited greater immune escape capacity.4,5 These observations suggest that Re can be determined by multiple factors such as infectivity and immune evasive potential. [...]a neutralisation assay using XBB breakthrough infection sera showed that the 50% neutralisation titre of XBB breakthrough infection sera against BA.2.86 was significantly (1·6-fold) lower than that against EG.5.1 (p<0·0001; appendix p 10).