COVID-19 continues to sweep the world causing hospitalizations and deaths.
Successive variants of concern (VoC) replaced the original virus.
They are increasingly escaping immune protection offered by vaccination or antibody treatments.
In twin studies from Max Planck Society, researchers found that people suffering from COVID-19 could have several different coronavirus variants hidden away from the immune system in different parts of the body.
This explains why it’s so hard to clear the virus from the body by its own antibodies, or by therapeutic antibody treatments.
The researchers sought to investigate the function of a tailor-made pocket in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in the infection cycle of the virus.
The pocket, discovered by the Bristol team in an earlier breakthrough, played an essential role in viral infectivity.
In the current studies, researchers applied cutting-edge synthetic biology techniques, state-of-the-art imaging, and cloud computing to decipher viral mechanisms at work.
To understand the function of the pocket, the scientists built synthetic SARS-CoV-2 virions in the test tube, that are mimics of the virus but have a major advantage in that they are safe, as they do not multiply in human cells.
Using these artificial virions, they were able to study the exact mechanism of the pocket in viral infection.
They demonstrated that upon binding of fatty acid, the spike protein decorating the virions changed their shape.
This switching ‘shape’ mechanism effectively cloaks the virus from the immune system.
The findings suggest that one can have several different virus variants in one’s body.
Some of these variants may use kidney or spleen cells as their niche to hide, while the body is busy defending against the dominant virus type.
This could make it difficult for the infected patients to get rid of coronavirus entirely.
If you care about Covid, please read studies about COVID-19 vaccines that are only 66% effective against Delta variant, and old drug that could save your life from COVID-19.
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The twin studies were conducted by Kapil Gupta et al., and published in Nature Communications.
