SARS-CoV-2. Developed computational system to predict the pathogenicity of variants. The Italian study

The methodology that also allows the determination of a pathogenicity index such as to allow an immediate and personalized health response is developed by the Cnr-Ibiom with the University of Bari and the University of Milan and the support of the bioinformatics and genomics platform of Elixir Italia, The study published in Nature Communications Biology

27 APR –

Development of a computational system for the identification of the viral variants of the Sars-CoV-2 virus most dangerous to public health through a comparative analysis of over 11 million viral genomes sampled during the pandemic. A system that can be used for any new pandemics.

To develop the methodology that allows for the timely classification of the new variants also determining a pathogenicity index such as to allow an immediate and personalized health response is the Cnr-Ibiom together withUniversity of Bari and the State University of Milanwith the support of Elixir Italia’s bioinformatics and genomics platform, made available by the Italian node of the Elixir European research infrastructure for life sciences.

The study, published in Nature Communications Biology, examined the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (Sars-CoV-2), which has undergone constant evolution since the beginning of the pandemic, assuming the forms of numerous “variants” classified according to their epidemic relevance and healthcare as VOC (variant of concern), VOI (variant of interest) and VUM (variant under monitoring) depending on the degree of infectivity, the ability to evade the immune response, and the severity of the disease caused.

“To face a pandemic crisis and minimize its social and health impact – he explains Graziano Pesole of the Cnr-Ibiom and the University of Bari – the ability to immediately recognize the most dangerous variants (VOC) is crucial: the retrospective analysis presented in this study demonstrates how the time elapsed between the first observation of the critical variants (e.g. alpha , delta, omicron), even equal to more than two months, has proved to be too long to implement adequate containment practices. Through this new study – he added – it was possible, through a comparative analysis of a large number of characteristics derived from the analysis of viral genomes, to elaborate an index of ‘dangerousness’ which can be calculated in a few seconds as soon as the new variant is observed”.

The innovative methodology thus makes it possible to characterize new variants as soon as they begin to multiply in the population, promptly assessing the potential pathogenic and epidemiological impact of any new pandemics, and also improving the efficiency of the health response. “The study demonstrates the importance of genomic surveillance to homogeneously sample the viral genomes in different time intervals and at regular time intervals”, concludes Pesole.

April 27, 2023
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