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Particles (green; artificially coloured) of SARS-CoV-2 infect a host cell.Credit: AMI Images/Science Photo Library
10 March — A worrisome coronavirus variant brings hope for better vaccines
People infected with a fast-spreading coronavirus variant mount an immune response that can fend off multiple SARS-CoV-2 strains.
Scientists first identified the SARS-CoV-2 variant called B.1.351 in South Africa in late 2020. They have since linked it to reinfections and found hints that several vaccines are less effective against it than against SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating earlier in the pandemic.
Penny Moore at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg, South Africa, and her colleagues assessed the antibody responses mounted by 89 people who were infected with B.1.351 and were admitted to hospital (T. Moyo-Gwete et al. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/fzq5; 2021). The team found that these participants’ antibody levels were similar to those in people infected with earlier strains.
The team then pitted antibodies from people infected with B.1.351 against a form of HIV modified to use the coronavirus spike protein to infect cells. The antibodies were able to inactivate viruses incorporating the form of spike protein found in B.1.351, earlier strains, and an emerging variant identified in Brazil called P.1.
The results suggest that vaccines based on B.1.351’s genetic sequence might protect people from multiple strains of the coronavirus, the authors say. The findings have not yet been peer reviewed.
