Filenews 10 July 2021
Very recent research published in early July 2021 by American and Swiss scientists sheds light on the mechanism by which SARS-COV-2 virus mutations can avoid existing vaccines.
Professor of Organic Chemistry-Pharmacology of the Department of Chemistry of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Giorgos Cocotos, says that an unprecedented mechanism is revealed at the molecular level by which the virus can escape existing vaccines and which is associated with amino acid mutations of the spike protein of the virus.
These mutations were discovered in a strain of the virus first detected in California, called the Epsilon mutation.
The spike protein plays a very important role in tying the virus to human cells and starting the infection. In the epsilon mutation three amino acids of the spike protein are replaced by different amino acids.
This results in a change in the structure of the protein in space, which now prevents antibodies from recognizing the protein. The ultimate consequence is to mitigate the neutralizing power of antibodies that have come either from the ebola or from a previous infection with the virus.
Such mutations have the potential to avoid and especially monoclonal antibodies used in clinical practice as therapeutic means. The change in the structure of the spike protein in the epsilon mutation was found by electronic cryomicroscopicscopy and confirmed the formation of a new disulphide bond with mass spectrometry.
Anxiety mutation
The epsilon mutation is characterized as a mutation of concern. It was first detected in California by the end of 2020 (currently about 46,000 cases have been detected in the US) and has spread to 34 other countries (in a small number of cases so far).
Understanding the mechanism by which mutations have the potential to more or less mitigate the protective action of antibodies highlights and underlines the need for continuous alertness for COVID-19 disease and the development of a drug that effectively treats the disease by killing the virus in its early stages.
in.gr
