biorxiv.org
Epidemiology and virological characteristics of the emerging SARS-CoV-2 variant PJ.2.1
SARS-CoV-2 continues to circulate globally at high levels and to evolve into new variants. Recently, a new saltation variant harbouring a highly mutated spike protein, PJ.2.1, emerged in North America. Here, we provide a brief epidemiological and virological characterization of PJ.2.1 and cocirculating variants. We report that PJ.2.1 is spreading in the USA, Canada, and Spain and mainly infects individuals aged 60 years and older, as do most other variants, with the exception of BA.3.2, which preferentially infects individuals aged 0-9 years. PJ.2.1 was less susceptible to inhibition by an antibody against ACE2 than were the other variants, indicating increased ACE2 binding. In contrast, PJ.2.1 did not show augmented evasion of antibodies from vaccinees who had received the LP.8.1-adapted vaccine compared with most other variants analysed. These results suggest that augmented ACE2 affinity rather than increased antibody evasion might drive the current, rapid spread of PJ.2.1. ### Competing Interest Statement IN, SP, and MH conducted contract research (testing of vaccine serums for neutralising activity against SARS-CoV-2) for Valneva, which is unrelated to this work. GMNB was an adviser for Moderna, and SP was an adviser for BioNTech, which is unrelated to this work. AD-J was an adviser for Pfizer, which is unrelated to this work. All other authors declare no competing interests. AD-J acknowledges funding by the European Social Fund (ZAM5-87006761), and together with GMNB, by the COVID-19-Research Network Lower Saxony (COFONI) through funding from the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony in Germany (14-76103-184, project 4LZF23). SP acknowledges funding by the DZIF, associated partner site Goettingen. NC acknowledges funding by the Chinese Scholarship Council (202308310035). The funding sources had no role in the design and execution of the study, writing of the manuscript, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. The authors did not receive payment from any pharmaceutical company or other agency to write the manuscript. The authors were not precluded from accessing data in the study, and they accept responsibility for submitting it for publication. European Social Fund, ZAM5-87006761 COVID-19-Research Network Lower Saxony (COFONI), 14-76103-184, project 4LZF23 DZIF, associated partner site Göttingen Chinese Scholarship Council, 202308310035
