Russian Scientists Investigate the Immune Response to COVID Variations (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Trace, Kappa and Lambda)

The continuing development of new SARS-CoV-2 mutations allows the virus to spread more effectively and also avert antibodies. However, it is unclear whether brand-new strains can escape T-cell immunity – one of the body’s main lines of protection against COVID-19.

The development of a T-cell immune reaction is significantly governed by genetic factors, consisting of variations in the genes of the significant histocompatibility facility (likewise called HLA). Each HLA gene variant possesses a corresponding molecule that determines a virus’s specific peptides (protein) set. There are a massive number of such genetic variations, and also each person has a particular set of them.

The efficiency of the growth of T-cell immunity to COVID-19 strains varies from one person to another. Depending on the collection of HLA molecules, some people’s immune systems will detect and destroy a mutated virus with the same effectiveness as they would be the main form of the virus. In others, the action is less effective.

The research was conducted by a team of scientists from HSE University’s Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology and the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, including Stepan Nersisyan, Anton Zhiyanov, Maxim Shkurnikov, and also Alexander Tonevitsky. They evaluated the hereditary features of the advancement of T-cell immunity to 11 major SARS-CoV-2 variants by assessing the most typical HLA genetics variants. The researchers used their results to create the T-cell COVID-19 Atlas website (T-CoV, https://t-cov.hse.ru).

The scientists used bioinformatics to analyze the binding affinity of thousands of HLA molecule variations and countless virus peptides of the main SARS-CoV-2 versions (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Scrap, Kappa, and also Lambda). The team determined the HLA alleles that showed the most considerably changed collection of identified virus peptides. According to scientists, mutated variants might present a greater danger to individuals with these alleles.

‘ T-cell immunity functions such that the variant in HLA particles and T-cell receptors stops viruses from escaping the immune response. Our study did not discover a single HLA genotype variant adversely influenced by viral mutations in a major way. This implies that even in conditions of decreased antibody efficiency, T-cell immunity remains to run successfully,’ commented Aleksander Tonevitsky, Dean of the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology at HSE University.

Originally published on Scitechdaily.com. Read the original article.

Reference: “T-CoV: a comprehensive portal of HLA-peptide interactions affected by SARS-CoV-2 mutations” by Stepan Nersisyan, Anton Zhiyanov, Maxim Shkurnikov and Alexander Tonevitsky, 16 August 2021, Nucleic Acids Research.
DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkab701