The Omicron mutation was detected in the sewage of Thessaloniki – The announcement of AUTh

The presence of the highly contagious Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the community of Thessaloniki was confirmed by analyzes of the Sewage Epidemiology Team of AUTh in the municipal waste of the city.

The detection was done on a sample of Sunday, December 19, 2021, through a new innovative -high sensitivity and accuracy and real-time- molecular method, developed by the AUTh Team and in the coming days the exact estimates for its quantification and frequency will be announced. Omicron strain relative to the Delta strain, which still dominates the community.

“We are not surprised by the presence of the Omicron executive in Thessaloniki, it is an expected development, as is his predominance in the near future. “But it is particularly important that today, before the mutation is detected in a laboratory-confirmed case in the city, we come to offer the State another valuable tool for timely and reliable forecasting of the epidemiological situation and the course of the pandemic,” his rector told APE-MPE. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and scientifically responsible for the research project, Professor Nikos Papaioannou.

“Global pioneer – at the disposal of EODY for measurements in other cities”

The method of detection and quantification of the Omicron strain using real-time PCR is a world pioneer, as there is nothing similar in the international literature today and therefore, as announced by Mr. Papaioannou, “the AUTh team immediately submits a relevant publication in an international repository of scientific works (medRxiv) and in addition makes the method available to the Sewage Epidemiology Network of EODY, so that it can be applied directly in other cities in Greece “.

Detection and quantification of the Omicron strain in wastewater, when high Delta concentrations are present, is not possible with existing PCR laboratory molecular tests. “Today, all over the world, the only reliable attempts to identify the Omicron strain involve time-consuming methods of parallel sequencing of millions of virus nucleotides after painstaking pre-assembly procedures. Responding to the requirement for early detection and quantification of the Omicron strain in wastewater, the AUTh Sewage Epidemiology Team managed in a short time to develop a new molecular method real-time PCR, which has the ability to selectively multiply the part of the genome that encodes the protein spike of the Omicron strain and not of the Delta “, explained the rector of AUTh.

The new method is based on know-how recently published in prestigious international scientific journals by members of the AUTh Sewage Epidemiology Team from the Diagnostic Laboratory of the AUTh Department of Veterinary Medicine and concerns the detection and standardization of LSDV virus that affects cattle, cattle, Beta, Gamma and Delta of SARS-CoV-2 in clinical specimens.

The method uses a modified LNA probe and locates a total of two key genetic signatures, namely the region of nucleotide deletions at positions S69-70 and the S: T95I mutation, capable of characterizing the Omicron variant and differentiating it from other strains of special interest community. This makes it possible to specifically and sensitively detect and accurately quantify the viral load of the Omicron strain in wastewater, regardless of the amount of Delta load still prevalent in the community.

The immediate planning of the test at the end of November, when there was now sufficient information from the genetic variants of the Omicron strain, allowed the AUTh Sewage Epidemiology Team to proceed with the timely supply of reagents from December 16 onwards to be tested in real time and without delays the sewage of Thessaloniki for the presence of the executive Omicron.

Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news