New potential route of infection discovered – is vaccination protection at risk? Healing practice

Mutation opens another route for SARS-CoV-2 infection

The SARS-CoV-2 mutation gives the ability to enter cells not via the ACE2 receptor, as is usually the case, but via a different pathway. As all COVID-19 vaccines and antibody-based therapies to date target the sparse protein and ACE2 receptor pathway to cells, the question arises as to what are the effects of the second route of infection on the spread of COVID-19 and so on. Existing can you have vaccinations?

The virus can bypass antibodies and vaccines

The virus’s ability to use an alternative entry route theoretically opens up the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 bypassing antibodies or vaccines, even if there are no indications of such a process, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Lewis regarding the results of their new study. These show that the virus can change in unexpected ways and find new ways to cause infection. The study was published in the English Language Journal.cell reportsChest.

Alternate route of infection

This mutation occurred in one of the places that changes dramatically when the virus spreads between humans. Most often, alternative receptors and binding factors enhance ACE2-dependent entry. But in this case we have discovered an alternative way in which an important type of cell – a human lung cell – is infected,” explains study author Dr. Cipla Cutloway of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The virus acquired this ability through a mutation known to occur in the population.

Last year, the research group planned to investigate the molecular changes that occur in cells infected with SARS-CoV-2. Experts often check SARS-CoV-2 in primate kidney cells because the virus thrives well in them. However, in the current study, cells from lung tissue and other cells very similar to naturally infected cells were examined.

In order to identify more cells related to SARS-CoV-2 replication, the experts examined a group of ten so-called lung and head and neck cell lines. “The only ones that could get infected are the ones you included as a negative control,” the expert says. This was a crazy surprise because it was a human lung cancer cell line without ACE2.

The mutation comes from the laboratory

Experts found that the virus they used in the experiments had caused a mutation. The virus was originally acquired from a person in Washington state who had COVID-19. When the virus grew in the lab over time, it acquired a mutation. This resulted in a single amino acid change at position 484 in the spike protein of the virus.

The SARS-CoV-2 Spike is used to bind ACE2, and position 484 is what is known as a mutagenesis hotspot. A large number of mutations at the same locus have already been identified in viral variants of humans and mice as well as in viruses grown in the laboratory, according to the researchers.

Some of the mutations identified in the human virus samples are identical to those the research group found in their variant. The team shows that the worrying alpha and beta variants have mutations at position 484, although these mutations are different.

The virus can be under selective pressure

“This situation is evolving over time in humans and in the laboratory. Given our data and those of others, it is possible that the virus is under selective pressure to enter cells without the use of ACE2. In many ways, it is frightening to imagine that the world’s population is fighting a virus that continues to diversify mechanisms. through which cells can be infected,” explains study author M. press release.

Vaccines are ineffective through the alternate route of entry?

Um herauszufinden, ob die Nutzung eines alternativen Eintrittswegs dem Virus erlaubt, COVID-19-Antikörpern oder Impfstoffen zu entkommen, wurden Panels von stand Antikörpern und Blutserum mit Antikörpern von Menschen welge anche dergenen fesert, wurden k to have. In general, antibodies and serology were also effective against the virus with the mutation, but there were some deviations, experts reported.

So far, it remains unclear whether the alternative signaling pathway will start working under real conditions when people become infected with SARS-CoV-2. The researchers explained that before an answer to this question can be found, the alternative receptor that the virus uses to reach cells must be found.

It is possible for the virus to use ACE2 until no other cells have ACE2 and then travel to this alternate pathway. The research team explains that without knowing the correct receptor, no statement can be made about its importance to the body. This is the point that is currently being worked on. (Such as)