More than a year into COVID-19 pandemic, progress on understanding disease but many miragenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from miragenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Compromised immunity can allow SARS-CoV-2 to evade the immune system
The vast majority of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 clear the virus, but those with compromised immunity such as individuals receiving immune-suppressive drugs for autoimmune diseases can become chronically infected. As a result, their weakened immune defenses continue to attack the virus without being able to eradicate it fully.
This physiological tug-of-war between human host and pathogen offers a valuable opportunity to understand how SARS-CoV-2 can survive under immune pressure and adapt to it.
Now, a new study led by Harvard Medical School scientists offers a look into this interplay, shedding light on the ways in which compromised immunity may render SARS-CoV-2 fitter and capable of evading the immune system.
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The vast majority of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 clear the virus, but those with compromised immunityâsuch as individuals receiving immune-suppressive drugs for autoimmune diseasesâcan become chronically infected. As a result, their weakened immune defenses continue to attack the virus without being able to eradicate it fully.
This physiological tug-of-war between human host and pathogen offers a valuable opportunity to understand how SARS-CoV-2 can survive under immune pressure and adapt to it.
Now, a new study led by Harvard Medical School scientists offers a look into this interplay, shedding light on the ways in which compromised immunity may render SARS-CoV-2 fitter and capable of evading the immune system.
Abstract
Substitution for aspartic acid by glycine at position 614 in the spike (S) protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 appears to facilitate rapid viral spread. The G614 strain and its recent variants are now the dominant circulating forms. We report here cryo-EM structures of a full-length G614 S trimer, which adopts three distinct prefusion conformations differing primarily by the position of one receptor-binding domain. A loop disordered in the D614 S trimer wedges between domains within a protomer in the G614 spike. This added interaction appears to prevent premature dissociation of the G614 trimer, effectively increasing the number of functional spikes and enhancing infectivity, and to modulate structural rearrangements for membrane fusion. These findings extend our understanding of viral entry and suggest an improved immunogen for vaccine development.
Research shows how mutations in SARS-CoV-2 allow the virus to dodge immune defenses eurekalert.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from eurekalert.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.