The Communist Party of China (CPC) virus pneumonia outbreak is still spreading globally and has caused a serious public health crisis.
According to the latest data released by Johns Hopkins University (USA), as of 4:00 p.m. Beijing Time on January 27, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of CCP pneumonia worldwide exceeded 100 million, and the cumulative number of deaths exceeded 2.14 million.
Global CPC virus pneumonia infections
This global pandemic is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2). SARS-CoV-2 has been identified as the same strain as the original SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) lineage because of high sequence similarity. SARS-CoV-2 belongs to the coronavirus Family, which can be further subdivided into the b-lineage Betacoronavirus.
In order to accelerate the development of safer vaccines, scientists urgently need tools to study this CCA virus and to further define the specific functions of each structural protein of SARS-CoV-2. Coronavirus-specific antibodies are one such tool used in such studies.
Antibodies are blood proteins produced by the immune system that protect the body from infections such as coronaviruses. Oregon Health& Science University scientists conducted a study to characterize 10 antibodies covering all structural proteins of the SARS-CoV coronavirus – spines, membranes, nucleocapsids, and envelopes, among others.
The study found that antibodies produced by the CCLV react against other coronavirus strains and vice versa. In other words, almost all detected antibodies to SARS-CoV showed some degree of SARS-CoV-2 reactivity, but antibodies to the stinger protein were only partially cross-neutralizing.
The findings were published in Cell Reports on January 25, 2021, under the title “Cross-reactivity of SARS-CoV structural protein antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 antibodies against SARS-CoV-2).
Figure related paper (source: Cell Reports) except that researchers found that antibodies produced by the 2003 SARS outbreak were more limited in their effectiveness at neutralizing SARS- cov-2 virus.
Dr. Fikadu Tafesse, assistant professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the OHSU School of Medicine, said, “Our findings have important implications for immunity to different strains of coronavirus infections, especially at a time when these viruses continue to mutate.”
Considering the rate at which the virus mutates, about once or twice a month, it is not surprising that antibodies to the kind of virus produced 18 years ago are weak against the CCP virus.
Nonetheless, Tafesse said the findings suggest that more work needs to be done to determine the lasting effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine.
I don’t think there will be a one-size-fits-all vaccine,” he stressed. While the vaccines being introduced now may break the virus’ ferocious momentum and help end the infectious pandemic, they are likely not the end of the ‘battle’.”
Tafesse noted that researchers using individual antibody clones to test for cross-reactivity have found that the body’s normal immune system will produce many antibodies that are more likely to neutralize a range of targets on a mutated virus.
“I personally wouldn’t be overly concerned,” said Timothy Bates, a fourth-year graduate student in molecular microbiology and immunology at the OHSU School of Medicine and first author of the paper, “although emerging mutant viruses may have some tendency to evade some of the antibodies triggered by previous infection or vaccine triggered antibodies. But each person’s immune system is different and thus produces unique antibodies that bind to different parts of the virus, so the chances of any of the SARS-CoV-2 variants eventually escaping would be low.”
The study also suggests that the many efforts to accurately identify previous COVID-19 infections by analyzing antibodies in the blood are likely to be confused with antibodies triggered by other coronavirus strains such as the common cold, complicating the diagnosis of infection in older adults.
But the researchers note that the finding actually expands scientists’ ability to study the biology and pathogenic effects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus because they know the virus reacts to antibodies to multiple coronavirus strains.
“It provides additional tools to study how this virus acts, because we currently have very limited reagents available to study SARS-CoV-2,” Tafesse said.
The significance of this research is twofold. First, they have established a set of antibodies with known reactivity to both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, thus providing a basis for further study of both viruses. Second, they provide empirical evidence of high antibody cross-reactivity between different strains of coronaviruses, which is essential for designing diagnostic modalities for COVID-19 and developing vaccines.
In addition, information on antibody cross-reactivity between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 may help bioinformaticians to develop computational tools that can predict cross-reactivity of other antibodies and even guide the rational design of improved coronavirus antibodies and small molecule therapies.
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