A team of researchers from the Bambino Gesù hospital in Rome (Italy) sought to map mutations in the omicron variant of Sars-Cov-2 and compare it with existing images of the delta variant.

What is already known is that the omicron variant has a higher number of mutations - about 30,000 - than the others, but, as the researchers warned, it does not mean a higher risk of infection and more intense symptoms.

According to explanations from the research team, omicron itself already carries several mutations "concentrated mainly in a zone of the protein [spike] that interacts with human cells," and those that originate from it "are quite visible" in the image.

However, a higher number of mutations does not in itself mean that it is more dangerous, but rather "that the virus has once again adapted to the human species by generating another variant."

And corroborating this analysis is Oxford University immunologist and Director of the vaccine research group, Andrew Pollard, who developed the Covid-19 vaccine for the AstraZeneca laboratory.

""Mutations [of Omicron] exist in other variants, and vaccines have been able to prevent severe disease with [variants] Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta," he said.

The investigation focused on mutations at the level of the "three-dimensional structure of the spike protein," as explained by Claúdia Alteri, professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Milan and researcher at Bambino Gesù hospital.

"This image, which somewhat represents the map of all the variants, describes the Omicron mutations," but does not reveal what "role" they play, Alteri recalls.