Miscellaneous (Black)
SARS-CoV-2 has caused over 2 million deaths in little over a year. Vaccines are being deployed at scale, aiming to generate responses against the virus spike. The scale of the pandemic and error-prone virus replication is leading to the appearance of mutant viruses and potentially escape from antibody responses. Variant B.1.1.7, now dominant in the UK, with increased transmission, harbours 9 amino-acid changes in the spike, including N501Y in the ACE2 interacting-surface. In this study, the authors examined the ability of B.1.1.7 to evade antibody responses elicited by natural SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination. They mapped the impact of N501Y by structure/function analysis of a large panel of well-characterised monoclonal antibodies. B.1.1.7 is harder to neutralise than parental virus, compromising neutralisation by some members of a major class of public antibodies through light chain contacts with residue 501. However, widespread escape from monoclonal antibodies or antibody responses generated by natural infection or vaccination was not observed.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.02.033
