A group from Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China, etc. has reported about characteristic glycan modification of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant comparing with other variants.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36318020/
I thought I would stop blogging about SARS-CoV-2, but I would like to briefly introduce this paper it as a topic related to comparative glycan profiling analysis using lectin microarrays.
From the comparative glycan profiling analysis, it was found that SARS-CoV-2 Omicron showed higher levels of terminal fucose (UEA-I), and also showed higher level of sialylated (MAL-II, MAA, ASNA-I) and galactosylated glycans (CSA, WFA, SBA, VVL) than other variants (Alpha, Beta, and Delta).
SARS-CoV-2 Omicron was more susceptible to neutralization antibodies after neuraminidase or galactosidase treatment. This means that the higher expression of both Sia- and Gal-containing glycans on Omicron potentially enhance its shielding effect against neutralization.
