Coronavirus, a crucial vaccine gene in antibodies

A crucial vaccine gene has been identified in human antibodies against the new coronavirus: it is present in 294 antibodies analyzed in the Californian institute Scripps, it is one of the most frequent and manages to intercept the site where the first main weapon of SarsCoV2, the Spike protein binds to the Ace receptor on the surface of human cells. Published in the journal Science, the discovery promises to speed up the search for an effective vaccine against the Covid-19 pandemic.

The optimism of the researchers, coordinated by Yuan Meng, of the Scripps Laboratory of Computational Biology, is in the fact that for the first time an essential element is provided to research on the vaccine: that relating to the molecular characteristics that contribute to making it more effective the antibody response. Numerous vaccines have now entered the clinical trial phase, but no one has so far been able to exploit information like this.

The newly discovered gene is found in 294 antibodies that prevent the Spike protein from binding to the Ace receptor, it is called IGHV3-53 and has a low rate of mutations. By observing two antibodies with this gene in action on the Ace receptor, the researchers studied its structure at the molecular level to discover the secret of their efficiency and to be able to reproduce it in new vaccine candidates.