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Updated picture of SARS-CoV-2 variants and mutations

  • Giuseppe Lippi ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Camilla Mattiuzzi and Brandon M. Henry
Published/Copyright: December 23, 2021
Diagnosis
From the journal Diagnosis Volume 9 Issue 1

Abstract

The worldwide burden of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still unremittingly prosecuting, with nearly 300 million infections and over 5.3 million deaths recorded so far since the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) pandemic at the end of the year 2019. The fight against this new highly virulent beta coronavirus appears one of the most strenuous and long challenges that humanity has ever faced, since a definitive treatment has not been identified so far. The adoption of potentially useful physical preventive measures such as lockdowns, social distancing and face masking seems only partially effective for mitigating viral spread, though efficacy and continuation of such measures on the long term is questionable, due to many social and economic reasons. Many COVID-19 vaccines have been developed and are now widely used, though their effectiveness is challenged by several aspects such as low uptake and limited efficacy in some specific populations, as well as by continuous emergence of new mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome, accompanying the origin and spread of new variants, which in turn may contribute to further decrease the effectiveness of current vaccines and treatments. This article is hence aimed to provide an updated picture of SARS-CoV-2 variants and mutations that have emerged from November 2019 to present time (i.e., early December 2021).

Keywords: COVID-19; mutations; SARS-CoV-2; variants
Corresponding author: Prof. Giuseppe Lippi, Section of Clinical Biochemistry and School of Medicine, University Hospital of Verona, Piazzale L.A. Scuro, 10, 37134 Verona, Italy, Phone: 0039 045 8122970, Fax: 0039 045 8124308, E-mail:

  1. Research funding: The authors received no funding for this work.

  2. Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  3. Competing interests: The authors state no conflict of interest.

  4. Informed consent: Not applicable.

  5. Ethical approval: Not applicable.

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Received: 2021-12-06
Accepted: 2021-12-13
Published Online: 2021-12-23

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

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  2. Editorial
  3. From Camille Nούς to Apollonian and the Dionysian scientists
  4. Review
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  6. Mini Reviews
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  8. Systematic review and cumulative meta-analysis of the diagnostic accuracy of glial fibrillary acidic protein vs. S100 calcium binding protein B as blood biomarkers in observational studies of patients with mild or moderate acute traumatic brain injury
  9. Opinion Papers
  10. The 6C model for accurately capturing the patient’s medical history
  11. Webside manner: maskless communication
  12. Original Articles
  13. Ways that nurse practitioner students self-explain during diagnostic reasoning
  14. Diagnostic reasoning: relationships among expertise, accuracy, and ways that nurse practitioner students self-explain
  15. Perspectives on the current state of pre-clerkship clinical reasoning instruction in United States medical schools: a survey of clinical skills course directors
  16. Use of a structured approach and virtual simulation practice to improve diagnostic reasoning
  17. Analyzing diagnostic errors in the acute setting: a process-driven approach
  18. Morning report goes virtual: learner experiences in a virtual, case-based diagnostic reasoning conference
  19. Stroke hospitalization after misdiagnosis of “benign dizziness” is lower in specialty care than general practice: a population-based cohort analysis of missed stroke using SPADE methods
  20. Discrepancy between emergency department admission diagnosis and hospital discharge diagnosis and its impact on length of stay, up-triage to the intensive care unit, and mortality
  21. Automated capture-based NGS workflow: one thousand patients experience in a clinical routine framework
  22. Short Communication
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  24. Case Reports – Lessons in Clinical Reasoning
  25. Lessons in clinical reasoning ‒ pitfalls, myths, and pearls: a case of confusion, disequilibrium, and “picking at the air”
  26. Hickam’s dictum, Occam’s razor, and Crabtree’s bludgeon: a case of renal failure and a clavicular mass
  27. Letters to the Editor
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https://doi.org/10.1515/dx-2021-0149
Keywords for this article
COVID-19; mutations; SARS-CoV-2; variants

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. From Camille Nούς to Apollonian and the Dionysian scientists
  4. Review
  5. The role of D-dimer in periprosthetic joint infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis
  6. Mini Reviews
  7. Updated picture of SARS-CoV-2 variants and mutations
  8. Systematic review and cumulative meta-analysis of the diagnostic accuracy of glial fibrillary acidic protein vs. S100 calcium binding protein B as blood biomarkers in observational studies of patients with mild or moderate acute traumatic brain injury
  9. Opinion Papers
  10. The 6C model for accurately capturing the patient’s medical history
  11. Webside manner: maskless communication
  12. Original Articles
  13. Ways that nurse practitioner students self-explain during diagnostic reasoning
  14. Diagnostic reasoning: relationships among expertise, accuracy, and ways that nurse practitioner students self-explain
  15. Perspectives on the current state of pre-clerkship clinical reasoning instruction in United States medical schools: a survey of clinical skills course directors
  16. Use of a structured approach and virtual simulation practice to improve diagnostic reasoning
  17. Analyzing diagnostic errors in the acute setting: a process-driven approach
  18. Morning report goes virtual: learner experiences in a virtual, case-based diagnostic reasoning conference
  19. Stroke hospitalization after misdiagnosis of “benign dizziness” is lower in specialty care than general practice: a population-based cohort analysis of missed stroke using SPADE methods
  20. Discrepancy between emergency department admission diagnosis and hospital discharge diagnosis and its impact on length of stay, up-triage to the intensive care unit, and mortality
  21. Automated capture-based NGS workflow: one thousand patients experience in a clinical routine framework
  22. Short Communication
  23. Characterizing the relationship between diagnostic intensity and quality of care
  24. Case Reports – Lessons in Clinical Reasoning
  25. Lessons in clinical reasoning ‒ pitfalls, myths, and pearls: a case of confusion, disequilibrium, and “picking at the air”
  26. Hickam’s dictum, Occam’s razor, and Crabtree’s bludgeon: a case of renal failure and a clavicular mass
  27. Letters to the Editor
  28. Three learning concepts to improve diagnosis and enhance the practice of medicine
  29. Distributed cognition: a framework for conceptualizing telediagnosis in teams
  30. Performance of Fujirebio Espline SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test for identifying potentially infectious individuals
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