Enlarge / False-color image of a T-cell (orange) latching on to a cell in preparation for killing it. (credit: Getty Images) From the start, the omicron variant had people worried because its version of the spike protein carried mutations in many of the sites that are recognized by antibodies. This meant that antibodies generated to […]
Enlarge / Illustration of antibodies responding to an infection of SARS-CoV-2. (credit: Getty Images/Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library) Right from omicron’s first description, researchers were concerned about the variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Looking over the list of mutations it carried, scientists could identify a number that would likely make the variant more infectious. Other mutations […]
Enlarge / False color image of viruses attached to a cell’s surface. (credit: NIAID) While the SARS-CoV-2 virus is new to humans, coronaviruses in general aren’t. There have been earlier members of this group of viruses that have raised pandemic fears, while another group regularly circulates widely in humans, causing symptoms of the common cold. […]
Enlarge / The immune response involves a lot of moving parts. (credit: BSIP/Getty Images) There’s still a lot of uncertainty about how exactly the immune system responds to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But what’s become clear is that re-infections are still very rare, despite an ever-growing population of people who were exposed in the early days […]