Research Highlights: SARS-CoV-2 Variant More Difficult to be Killed by Immune Responses from Natural Infection or Vaccination
- The COVID-19 virus has caused more than 2 million deaths just over a year.
- Vaccines are being introduced to produce immune responses against the virus.
- The process of viral replication is prone to nucleic acid errors which can lead to mutant viruses and escape from antibody responses.
- Variant B.1.1.7 is dominating in the United Kingdom with increased transmission.
- The variant possesses 9 amino acid mutations in the spike protein which includes N501Y in the ACE2 interacting surface.
- Researchers examined how the variant evade antibody responses induced by COVID-19 natural viral infection and vaccination.
- The study mapped the impact of N501Y by structural and functional analyses of well-characterized monoclonal antibodies.
- The variant is more difficult to neutralize than the parental virus.
- Escape from monoclonal antibodies or antibody responses induced by natural infection or vaccination was not observed.
Source:
Supasa, P., Zhou, D., Dejnirattisai, W., Liu, C., Mentzer, A. J., Ginn, H. M., Zhao, Y., Duyvesteyn, H., Nutalai, R., Tuekprakhon, A., Wang, B., Paesen, G. C., Slon-Campos, J., López-Camacho, C., Hallis, B., Coombes, N., Bewley, K. R., Charlton, S., Walter, T. S., Barnes, E., … Screaton, G. R. (2021). Reduced neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 variant by convalescent and vaccine sera. Cell, S0092-8674(21)00222-1. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.02.033
