Glancing back at SARS-CoV-2: Serological classification

² National Key Laboratory of Intelligent Tracking and Forecasting for Infectious Diseases (NITFID), National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China

³ NHC Key Laboratory of Biosafety, Research Unit of Adaptive Evolution and Control of Emerging Viruses, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China

MI, 7681 https://doi.org/10.36922/mi.7681

Submitted: 16 December 2024 | Revised: 17 February 2025 | Accepted: 24 February 2025 | Published: 13 March 2025

© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )

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Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has exerted a profound influence on the global community over the past few years. As the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to mutate, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic presents significant challenges to public health. The serotype is defined as a distinct variant within a microbial species, characterized by specific immune reactions. It has previously been used to study various pathogens, such as human papillomavirus and dengue virus. SARS-CoV-2 serotype classification has been proposed by different groups recently. At present, the main prevalent variants of the SARS-CoV-2 have been classified into six distinct serotypes. SARS-CoV-2 serotype classification has been applied in areas such as surveillance, early warning, and vaccination, etc. Consequently, we reviewed previous studies and propose further perspectives for future applications of SARS-CoV-2 serotypes classification.

Keywords

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2

Serotype

Classification

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFC2604100) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (92269203).

Conflict of interest

Jun Liu is an Editorial Board Member of this journal, but was not in any way involved in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. Separately, the authors declared that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.

References

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