Virus can find new ways to infect cells, evade vax

New York, June 25

A single mutation gives SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, the ability to enter cells through another route, opening up the possibility of evading Covid antibodies or vaccines, finds a study. Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, scientists identified how SARS-CoV-2 gets inside cells to cause infection.

All current Covid-19 vaccines and antibody-based therapeutics were thus designed to disrupt this route into cells, which requires a receptor called ACE2. But, the new study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis showed that Covid virus has the ability to enter cells via an alternative pathway — one that does not require ACE2. While the researchers did not find evidence of SARS-CoV-2 evasion to vaccines, the discovery does show that the virus can change in unexpected ways and find new ways to cause infection. —IANS