Article
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Biothermodynamics of the BA.5.2 and BF.7 variants of SARS-CoV-2
Version 1
: Received: 17 January 2023 / Approved: 18 January 2023 / Online: 18 January 2023 (08:40:33 CET)
How to cite: Popovic, M. Biothermodynamics of the BA.5.2 and BF.7 variants of SARS-CoV-2. Preprints 2023, 2023010327. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202301.0327.v1 Popovic, M. Biothermodynamics of the BA.5.2 and BF.7 variants of SARS-CoV-2. Preprints 2023, 2023010327. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202301.0327.v1
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 resembles the ancient mythical creature Hydra. Just like with the Hydra, when one head is cut, it is followed by appearance of two more heads, suppression of one SARS-CoV-2 variant causes appearance of newer variants. Unlike Hydra that grows identical heads, newer SARS-CoV-2 variants are usually more infective, which can be observed as time evolution of the virus at hand, which occurs through acquisition of mutations during time. The appearance of new variants is followed by appearance of new COVID-19 pandemic waves. With the appearance of new pandemic waves and determining of sequences, in the scientific community and general public the question is always raised of whether the new variant will be more virulent and more pathogenic. The two variants characterized in this paper, BA.5.2 and BF.7, have caused a pandemic wave during the late 2022. This paper gives full chemical and thermodynamic characterization of the BA.5.2 and BF.7 variants of SARS-CoV-2. Having in mind that Gibbs energy of binding and biosynthesis represent the driving forces for the viral life cycle, based on the calculated thermodynamic properties we can conclude that the newer variants are more infective than earlier ones, but that their pathogenicity has not changed.
Keywords
COVID-19; variant of concern; infectivity; pathogenicity; evolution; Gibbs energy
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Virology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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