Mary Wilson
Well-known member
June 17, 2021
N Engl J Med 2021; 384:2349-2351
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMcibr2106054
Elizabeth G. Phimister, Ph.D., Editor
Vaccination is the main pillar of the worldwide effort to contain and ultimately end the ongoing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. Although multiple efficacious vaccines have been developed at unprecedented speed, the number of failed or underwhelming vaccine programs illustrates the challenges in mounting a protective immune response against SARS-CoV-2. The ideal vaccine antigens should direct the immune response to the most vulnerable structure on virion surfaces: the viral spike protein in the prefusion conformation.
... In a recent study, Zhang et al.[SUP]4[/SUP] reported the exact structure of spike trimers containing D614 or G614. In most previous studies, the researchers solved the structures of a stabilized, secreted spike version: the transmembrane domain was replaced with an artificial trimerization domain, and stabilizing mutations were introduced to prevent spike cleavage and conformational changes (the 2P mutations[SUP]2[/SUP]). Zhang et al. solved the structures of the unmodified spike protein, including the transmembrane domain.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcibr2106054?query=featured_home&cookieSet=1
N Engl J Med 2021; 384:2349-2351
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMcibr2106054
Elizabeth G. Phimister, Ph.D., Editor
Vaccination is the main pillar of the worldwide effort to contain and ultimately end the ongoing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. Although multiple efficacious vaccines have been developed at unprecedented speed, the number of failed or underwhelming vaccine programs illustrates the challenges in mounting a protective immune response against SARS-CoV-2. The ideal vaccine antigens should direct the immune response to the most vulnerable structure on virion surfaces: the viral spike protein in the prefusion conformation.
... In a recent study, Zhang et al.[SUP]4[/SUP] reported the exact structure of spike trimers containing D614 or G614. In most previous studies, the researchers solved the structures of a stabilized, secreted spike version: the transmembrane domain was replaced with an artificial trimerization domain, and stabilizing mutations were introduced to prevent spike cleavage and conformational changes (the 2P mutations[SUP]2[/SUP]). Zhang et al. solved the structures of the unmodified spike protein, including the transmembrane domain.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcibr2106054?query=featured_home&cookieSet=1