Front Immunol . Implication of SARS-CoV-2 Immune Escape Spike Variants on Secondary and Vaccine Breakthrough Infections

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Front Immunol


. 2021 Nov 3;12:742167.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.742167. eCollection 2021.
Implication of SARS-CoV-2 Immune Escape Spike Variants on Secondary and Vaccine Breakthrough Infections


Liyana Ahmad ¹



Affiliations

• PMID: 34804022
• PMCID: PMC8596465
• DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.742167

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic remains an on-going global health and economic threat that has amassed millions of deaths. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the etiological agent of this disease and is constantly under evolutionary pressures that drive the modification of its genome which may represent a threat to the efficacy of current COVID-19 vaccines available. This article highlights the pressures that facilitate the rise of new SARS-CoV-2 variants and the key mutations of the viral spike protein - L452R, E484K, N501Y and D614G- that promote immune escape mechanism and warrant a cautionary point for clinical and public health responses in terms of re-infection, vaccine breakthrough infection and therapeutic values.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; breakthrough infection; immune evasion; secondary infection; spike protein; vaccine; variants.