Analysis

NATURE

A mutation undercuts the immune response to the COVID virus 

A handful of mutations to SARS-CoV-2 can help it to escape the immune response mounted by a subset of infected people.

Researchers have identified thousands of mutations in SARS-CoV-2 samples, but the vast majority are unlikely to have much effect on the virus’s biology. To identify potentially important mutations, Jesse Bloom at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, and his colleagues studied antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 isolated from the blood serum of people who had recovered from COVID-19 (A. J. Greaney et al. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/ghr85d; 2021).

The team tested the antibodies’ response to samples of the virus’s spike protein. Each sample protein carried different versions of a region called the receptor binding domain (RBD), which recognizes host cells and is a major target for antibodies.