Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants: a mini-review

1Musa-Booth, T. O., *2Adegboro, B., and 2Medugu, N.
11928 Woodlawn Drive, Woodlawn, Maryland 21207, USA

2Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria

*Correspondence to: boazadegboro@gmail.com; boaz.adegboro@nileuniversity.edu.ng

Abstract:

SARS-CoV-2 has evolved over time with several mutations, especially on the spike protein, which has led to emergence of various variants. With the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 come new challenges in surveillance, effectiveness of preventive and treatment strategies, and outcome of the disease. Despite the lockdowns, mask mandates and other preventive measures put in place, in addition to over 10 million vaccine doses that have been administered globally as of February 2022, COVID-19 cases have risen to over 435 million and resulted in over 5.9 million deaths, largely as a result of the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants. To review the evolution of these variants, we searched different online database sources using keywords such as “source of SARS-CoV-2”, “SARS-CoV-2 origin”, “evolution of SARS-CoV-2”, “SARS-CoV-2 variants”, “variants of concern”, “variants of interest”, and “variants of high consequence”. This was to enable us give a good report about the various variants of SARS-CoV-2 that have emerged so far, and the public health challenges posed by them.

Keywords:  SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; variants of concern; variants of interest; variants of high consequence

Received Mar 30, 2022; Revised Apr 16, 2022; Accepted Apr 17, 2022

 

Copyright 2022 AJCEM Open Access. This article is licensed and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attrition 4.0 International License <a rel=”license” href=”//creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided credit is given to the original author(s) and the source. Editor-in-Chief: Prof. S. S. Taiwo

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Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants: a mini-review