Strategies to tackle SARS-CoV-2 Mu, a newly classified variant of interest likely to resist currently available COVID-19 vaccines

ABSTRACT

Several severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants have recently been reported in many countries. These have exacerbated the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-induced global health threats and hindered COVID-19 vaccine development and therapeutic progress. This commentary discusses the potential risk of the newly classified Mu variant of interest, seeming a highly vaccine-resistant variant, and the approaches that can be adopted to tackle this variant based on the available evidence. The SARS-CoV-2 B.1.621 (Mu variant) lineage has shown approximately ten times higher resistance to neutralizing sera obtained from COVID-19 survivors or BNT161b2-vaccinated people than the parenteral B.1 lineage. Several urgent and long-term strategic plans, including quick genomic surveillance for uncovering the genetic characteristics of the variants, equitable global mass vaccination, booster dose administration if required, and strict implementation of public health measures or non-pharmaceutical interventions, must be undertaken concertedly to restrict further infections, mutations, or recombination of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its deadly strains.

KEYWORDS:

• SARS-CoV-2 B.1.621
• sub-lineage B.1.621.1
• Mu variant
• vaccine breakthrough
• genomic surveillance
• global mass vaccination
• non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs)

Acknowledgments

All the authors acknowledge and thank their respective Institutes and Universities.

Author contributions

All the authors contributed significantly in this manuscript. MJH, AAR, KD and TBE conceptualized the manuscript. MJH wrote the first draft with input from KD. Authors AAM, SA, TBE, GS, SM, and KD reviewed and updated the manuscript. All authors contributed to revisions and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

All authors declare that there exist no commercial or financial relationships that could, in any way, lead to a potential conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This compilation is a review article written by its authors and required no substantial funding to be stated.