Original Covid antibody does not bind to variations, reveals new study

This raises the possibility of the virus mutating to evade the body's primary antibody response.

A new study published in the journal 'Nature Communications' revealed that antibodies from Covid's original strain don't bind to variants. Individuals infected with the original strain of the SARS-CoV2 virus developed a consistent antibody response. This produced two distinct antibody groups that bind to the virus's external surface spike protein.

Researcher Nicholas Wu from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said characterizing what kinds of antibodies the body is most likely to make to fight a natural infection is an important roadmap for vaccine design.

SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (Representational Picture)Pixabay

Findings of the study

For the study, the researchers mined published papers about Covid-19 patients for data about the sequence of the antibodies they produced. They focused on antibodies against the spike protein, the part of the virus that binds to receptors on human cells to infect them. The spike protein is the target of most vaccines.

They found that many antibody sequences converged into two main groups, indicating a consistent human immune response to the virus. "We focused on characterizing the antibodies created in those infected with the original strain of the virus," said Timothy Tan, a graduate student part of the research.

"Before we started the study, variants weren't much of a problem. As they emerged, we wanted to see whether the common antibodies we identified were able to bind to newer variants," Tan added.
The researchers studied the convergent antibodies' ability to bind to several variants and found that they are no longer bound to some.

Spike Changes — Mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 variants cause changes in the electrostatic potential (electric charge at rest) on the spike surface. Here, positively charged areas are shown in blue and negatively charged areas in red. In the Beta variant, the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and N-terminal domain (NTD) have changed substantially, affecting the ability of antibodies to bind to and neutralize the virus. Bing Chen/ Boston Children's Hospital

Implications

The finding has implications for the ability of new variants to reinfect people who contracted earlier versions of the virus, as well as for the continuing efficacy of vaccines and the design of possible vaccine boosters. "Even though this antibody response is very common with the original strain, it doesn't interact with variants," Wu said.

"That, of course, raises the concern of the virus evolving to escape the body's main antibody response. Some antibodies should still be effective -- the body makes antibodies to many parts of the virus, not only the spike protein -- but the particular groups of antibodies that we saw in this study will not be as effective," Wu added.

Issues about the extent of neutralizing antibody responses have been raised in light of the arrival of SARS-CoV-2 subtypes. Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were first identified in a group of individuals recovering from COVID-19 infection roughly 40 days after infection.