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There is a variant called “Brescia” of the coronavirus, even before the “English variant” that has been talked about so much in recent days: this is the extraordinary discovery revealed this Monday by Arnaldo Caruso, director of the Microbiology and Virology laboratory of the Spedali. Civili, who has always collaborated with the University.
The “local” variant would be like this due to a mutation of the now famous Spike protein: many have heard of it but not everyone knows what it is. On a physical level, it is the outermost part of the virus, which, when enlarged millions of times, appears to form a “crown” around cells (hence the coronavirus family).
Spike protein
In practice, the Spike is the “hook” with which Sars-Cov2 manages to interact with the cells of the host organism and, therefore, also infect it. It is divided into two parts: S1, which contains what is needed to bind to the target cell, attaching itself to the Ace2 receptor; S2, that’s the specific function that in the second phase allows the virus to enter the cell.
The Covid-19 Brescia mutation was isolated in a patient who had been positive for months, perhaps even eight – a circumstance more unique than rare across the international scene. At least until today: academics and researchers coordinated by prof. Caruso investigated the story and isolated the virus, which had changed again in August. So even before the English variant.
The issue of vaccines
But as for the viral cell on the other side of the Channel, the Brescia cell too, who knows how long it had been in circulation. “The high viral load present in the August and November swabs performed on the patient who was not negative – explains prof. Arnaldo Caruso inAdnkronos – allowed us to isolate viral mutants in Brescia. This will allow us to test these viruses with the sera of Covid patients obtained during the first pandemic wave, and to evaluate the ability of the antibodies to neutralize this variant in comparison with the circulating viral strains in the previous one. As soon as they are available, sera from vaccinated patients will also be evaluated in a similar way. “
“But I remain optimistic – Caruso continues – The vaccine generates a complex response to many areas of the Spike protein. Thus, even if there were antibodies that could not recognize a mutated area, there would certainly be others capable of binding to non-mutated portions of the protein. Their link would be enough to avoid the interaction between Spike and the cell receptor ”.
