An international team of scientists has determined the precise structural changes in the spike protein of the omicron variant. Their observations explain how the virus is able to evade antibodies against previous variants and still remain highly infectious.
“The findings provide a blueprint that researchers can use to design new countermeasures, whether they be vaccines or therapeutics, against omicron and other coronavirus variants that may emerge,” said David Veesler, investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. He led the research effort with Gyorgy Snell from Vir Biotechnology, Inc. in San Francisco.
The researchers report their findings in the journal Science. Please see the research paper.
Matthew McCallum, a postdoctoral fellow in Veesler’s lab, and Nadine Czudnochowski, a Vir Biotechnology scientist, were lead authors on the paper.
The omicron variant, which was first identified in November 2021 in South Africa, is causing a surge of infections around the world. In addition to being highly infectious, the variant can evade antibodies against earlier variants leading to breakthrough infections among those who have been vaccinated and those who have been infected previously.
The infectiousness of the virus is thought to be at least in part due to the large number of mutations in the amino acid sequences of the virus’s spike protein. The virus uses the spike protein to latch on to and enter the cells it infects. The omicron spike protein has 37 mutations that distinguish it from the first SARS-CoV-2 isolates in 2020.
