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SARS-CoV-2 can recruit a heme metabolite to evade antibody immunity – Science Advances
The coronaviral spike is the dominant viral antigen and the target of neutralizing antibodies. We show that SARS-CoV-2 spike binds biliverdin and bilirubin, the…
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
Our data show that the NTD of SARS-CoV-2 harbors dominant epitope(s), responsible for a considerable fraction of spike antigenicity (Figs. 3 and 4). It is well established that viruses use extensive glycosylation of their envelopes to shield antibody epitopes from recognition by humoral immunity (2426). Here, we propose a novel mode of immune evasion via allostery, regulated through recruitment of a metabolite. In contrast to glycosylation, co-opting a metabolite may allow conditional…
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