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Global Translational Medicine

EDITORIAL
Omicron or no longer omicron: That is the

question

Giuseppe Lippi*
Department of Engineering for Innovative Medicine, Section of Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of
Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

In an interesting article published in Global Translational Medicine, Bose et al.
1
attempted to compare the human immune response to severe acute respiratory
syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants Alpha (B.1.1.7), Delta (B.1.617.2), and
Omicron (B.1.1.529). These valuable efforts contributed to a better understanding of the
complex mechanism by which SARS-CoV-2 interacts with the human host over time,
but their clinical significance must be balanced against the ongoing evolution of the viral
genome. In their review of the literature, the authors used the generic term “Omicron” to
group a number of subvariants. However, the original “Omicron” (B.1.1.529) strain has
accumulated such an elevated number of mutations, since its first detection in November
2021, that the currently circulating strains share only a limited number of biological and
immunological characteristics compared with their ancestor, and no longer justify the
use of a generic name such as “Omicron.” 2
In a recent study, on the antigenicity, infectivity, cell-to-cell fusion properties,
and spike protein processing of BA.2.87.1 and JN.1, Li et al. reported that these
3
two “Omicron” subvariants, which were still concomitantly circulating at the time
of writing this letter, can exhibit dramatically heterogeneous biological behaviors,
providing a clear example of how even two subvariants of the same strain display
distinct behaviors. Notably, the authors discovered that compared to JN.1, BA.2.87.1
had a lower rate of immune escape from the sera of both coronavirus disease 2019
*Corresponding author:
Giuseppe Lippi vaccine recipients and individuals with JN.1 breakthrough infection. Furthermore,
(giuseppe.lippi@univr.it) BA.2.87.1 was found to have higher infectivity potential, cell-to-cell fusion activity,
Citation: Lippi G. Omicron or and spike protein cleavage efficiency than JN.1. These observations indicate a wide
no longer omicron: That is the distinction of the biological characteristics between the two subvariants under the
question. Global Transl Med. same “Omicron” clade.
2024;3(2):3678.
doi: 10.36922/gtm.3678 The unpredictable evolutionary trajectory of SARS-CoV-2 variants poses significant
Received: May 15, 2024 challenges to develop clinically effective vaccines and therapies, such as antivirals
Published Online: June 10, 2024 and monoclonal antibodies. What has become clear with SARS-CoV-2 is that what
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). was biologically plausible yesterday may not be today, as a new variant may have
This is an Open-Access article replaced the former. Aside from the critical importance of the continuous surveillance
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution in detecting new biological properties and enhanced immune escape properties of
License, permitting distribution, new SARS-CoV-2 variants, I am persuaded that the use of Greek letters (such as
and reproduction in any medium, Omicron) under which a large number of SARS-CoV-2 variants is included must be
provided the original work is
properly cited. finally abandoned, since it is no longer biologically, clinically, or immunologically
representative.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with
regard to jurisdictional claims in Conflict of interest
published maps and institutional
affiliations. The author declares no conflicts of interest.

Volume 3 Issue 2 (2024) 1 doi:10.36922/gtm.3678