The past several months have witnessed the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants with novel spike protein mutations that are influencing the epidemiological and clinical aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These variants can increase rates of virus transmission and/or increase the risk of reinfection and reduce the protection afforded by neutralizing monoclonal antibodies and vaccination. These variants can therefore enable SARS-CoV-2 to continue its spread in the face of rising population immunity while maintaining or increasing its replication fitness. The identification of four rapidly expanding virus lineages since December 2020, designated variants of concern, has ushered in a new stage of the pandemic. The four variants of concern, the Alpha variant (originally identified in the UK), the Beta variant (originally identified in South Africa), the Gamma variant (originally identified in Brazil) and the Delta variant (originally identified in India), share several mutations with one another as well as with an increasing number of other recently identified SARS-CoV-2 variants. Collectively, these SARS-CoV-2 variants complicate the COVID-19 research agenda and necessitate additional avenues of laboratory, epidemiological and clinical research.

在过去的几个月里，出现了具有新型刺突蛋白突变的 SARS-CoV-2 变体，这些突变正在影响 COVID-19 大流行的流行病学和临床方面。这些变体可以增加病毒传播率和/或增加再感染的风险，并减少中和单克隆抗体和疫苗接种所提供的保护。因此，这些变体可以使 SARS-CoV-2 在人群免疫力不断提高的情况下继续传播，同时保持或增强其复制适应性。自 2020 年 12 月以来，确定了四种快速扩张的病毒谱系，指定为值得关注的变种，开启了大流行的新阶段。值得关注的四种变体：Alpha 变体（最初在英国发现）、Beta 变体（最初在南非发现）、Gamma 变体（最初在巴西发现）和 Delta 变体（最初在印度发现），有几个共同点相互之间以及与最近发现的越来越多其他 SARS-CoV-2 变体之间的突变。总的来说，这些 SARS-CoV-2 变体使 COVID-19 研究议程变得复杂，并需要额外的实验室、流行病学和临床研究途径。