Vulnerability Discovered in Virus Causing COVID-19

"We're always looking for well, is there a chink in the armour? Is there a spot that is not changing so much, that we can direct antibodies to that spot?"

"That is the value of the new finding, that it tells us where to focus our attention."

"[The weak spot and master key 'unlock a whole new realm of treatment possibilities [having the potential to be effective against current or future variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus."

"The existence of a large number of mutations made it a much more effective escape artist from our immune system."

"We used very advanced imagining tools to literally zero in and cast a spotlight on the interaction of the spike protein with antibodies."

"It [antibody fragment] actually puts out a couple of fingers that still block the binding. So it achieves this effect by sitting next door." 

"It's an interesting physical block that sits close by, but not exactly at that site. And that may well be why [the site] has not mutated so much over time."

Dr.Sriram Subramaniam, study senior author

A nurse provides information to parents and children during the first week of COVID-19 immunization for children over six months at a Vancouver Coastal Health clinic in Vancouver on Aug. 4. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

The discovery of a "weak spot" in the virus causing COVID-19 has been isolated by researchers at the University of British Columbia. This discovery is seen as a potential avenue to pave the way for new treatments to be effective against all strains of the virus. Published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Communications, the study asserts the "key vulnerability" is found in all major variants of the COVID virus.

Anticipating the future, researchers feel that exploiting that weakness could lead to new ways of fighting the disease that has caused the death of close to 6.5 million people worldwide since it was identified over two years earlier. Dr. Subramaniam is a professor in the faculty of medicine at the University of British Columbia who explained that his team studied the virus at an atomic level in hopes of finding that weak spot and to identify an antibody fragment attaching to it across the many mutations of the virus including surging Omicron subvariants.

Antibodies are are naturally produced by the body's immune system triggered to fight infection. They counteract viruses through attaching to them much like a key in a lock. Antibodies can be produced in a laboratory for administration to patients as a treatment, though over time as viruses mutate they become less effective.

The weak spot that Professor Subramaniam's team identified however, is constant in all seven major variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, so that one antibody could conceivably act as 'master key' which would be capable of overcoming the creation of extensive mutations of the virus. With the knowledge that the immune system typically responds to what it senses on the surface of the virus (the spike protein), the researchers began their search.

The concern with each new variant of COVID-19 has revolved around whether the immune system would be capable of recognizing the mutated form. The researchers discovered the weak spot to be located on the spike protein, leading the antibody fragment to neutralize the virus attaching to the spike protein, blocking the virus from entering human cells. 

It was also seen that the identified antibody fragment is special in that it attaches next to the site where the spike protein binds with human cells, and not directly on it. It then becomes in some ways, less like locking the door than stretching out an arm to block entry, to begin with.

An image from cryo-electron microscopy performed by University of British Columbia researchers shows how an antibody fragment, red, attaches to a weak spot on the virus that causes COVID-19, grey, to block the virus from binding with the human cells, blue. (Supplied by Sriram Subramaniam/University of British Columbia)