How SARS-CoV-2 protects itself from antibodies
2021
King's College London, London, United Kingdom(1)
The Francis Crick Institute, London, United Kingdom(2)
University College London, London, United Kingdom(3)
The Francis Crick Institute, London, United Kingdom(2)
University College London, London, United Kingdom(3)
Human sera and cells were used to unveil a yet unexplained phenomenon concerning COVID-19 infection. In some patients who experience a COVID-19 infection, antibody titers are high but they nevertheless suffer from severe illness. It could now be shown that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is able to recruit a substance from the haem metabolite to inhibit the binding of neutralizing antibodies to the spike protein. Cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography were used to determine the conformational changes that lead to this escape by lower binding affinity of the human antibodies.
SARS-CoV-2 can recruit a haem metabolite to evade antibody immunity
Katie J. Doores(1), Peter Cherepanov(2), George Kassiotis(2), Laura E. McCoy(3)
Added on: 04-30-2021
[1] https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/04/22/sciadv.abg7607
