Corona Virus omicron version is thought to have acquired genetic material from a virus that causes the common cold in humans
According to a new preliminary study, omicron may have higher transmissibility but lesser virulence than other coronavirus variations, according to one of its authors.
Researchers from Nference, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company that analyzes biomedical data, sequenced omicron and discovered a piece of genetic code that is also contained in a virus that causes colds.
According to the researchers, this mutation could have occurred in a host who was also infected with SARS-CoV-2, a new coronavirus that can cause the common cold.
Other novel coronavirus variations have not been found to share the same genetic coding as HCoV-229E, according to the researchers.
VIEW ALSO : US High Court says COVID aid goes to Alaska Native corporate
Explaining the virus, Venky Soundararajan, a biological engineer who co-wrote the study said :
The “striking” similarity between omicron and HCoV-229E could have made the former “more accustomed to human hosts” and likely to evade some immune system responses .
“By virtue of omicron adopting this insertion … it is essentially taking a leaf out of the seasonal coronaviruses’ page, which [explains] …
how it lives and transmits more efficiently with human beings,”.