Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : February 2, 2022 11:27 AM IST
The Omicron variant has dozens of mutations in the spike protein of the virus .
The highly contagious Omicron variant has become the dominant variant in many countries. In the US, it accounted for 99.9 per cent of new weekly Covid-19 infections, with the Delta variant only making up the remaining 0.1 per cent in the week ending January 29, according to latest data from the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Omicron cases have risen rapidly since early December in the US. From just 0.6 per cent of new cases in the week ending December 4, the infections caused by the variant rose to 89.3 per cent in the week ending January 1, and 97.8 per cent in the week ending January 15, according to the CDC data.
Several studies have suggested that current Covid-19 vaccines can protect against severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths due to infection with the Omicron variant.
The CDC also emphasizes the importance of vaccination and boosters, to protect people from COVID-19 and reduce the likelihood of new variants emerging.
The Omicron variant has dozens of mutations in the spike protein of the virus that help it to evade all four of the classes of antibodies that can target SARS-CoV-2, suggested a new study from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
These mutations allow Omicron to escape from antibodies generated by the immune systems of vaccinated or previously infected people, as well as most of the current monoclonal antibody treatments, said Ram Sasisekharan, the Alfred H. Caspary Professor of Biological Engineering and Health Sciences and Technology (HST) at MIT.
MIT researchers used a computational approach to determine how mutated amino acids of the viral spike protein influence nearby amino acids, which helped them get a multidimensional view of how the virus evades antibodies. The study results appeared this week in Cell Reports Medicine.
Even though Omicron can evade most antibodies to some degree, vaccines still offer protection, Sasisekharan noted.
Not only vaccines generate B cells, which produce the monoclonal [antibody] response, they also produce T cells, which provide additional forms of protection, he stated.
He hopes that the study findings could help to identify regions of the receptor binding domain (RBD) that could be targeted with future vaccines and therapeutic antibodies. The RBD is the part of the viral protein that attaches to human ACE2 receptors and allows the virus to enter cells. It is also the part of the spike protein targeted by antibodies.
According to Sasisekharan, it may be necessary to develop cocktails of antibodies (including class 3 and 4 antibodies) that target different parts of the spike protein to create more effective antibody treatments.
With inputs from agencies
