Immune evasion, infectivity, and fusogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 and FLip variants. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38194968/)

These scientists wanted to understand how the virus that causes COVID-19 is changing and how it might affect the vaccines that people have been getting. They looked at different versions of the virus called variants, including one called BA.2.86 and another called FLip. They also looked at other variants like D614G, BA.1, BA.2, BA.4/5, XBB.1.5, and EG.5.1.

To study these variants, the scientists used blood samples from people who had received three doses of the vaccine or a different type of vaccine. They also used blood samples from healthcare workers who had been infected with the XBB.1.5 variant and a special kind of antibody called monoclonal antibody S309.

The scientists wanted to see how well these different samples could neutralize or stop the variants from infecting cells. They also wanted to understand how the variants affected the virus's ability to infect cells and fuse with them.

They found that the BA.2.86 variant was not as good at evading the immune system compared to the FLip variant and other XBB variants. This means that the immune system can still recognize and fight the BA.2.86 variant.

Interestingly, the monoclonal antibody S309 was not able to neutralize or stop the BA.2.86 variant. This might be because of a change in the virus called the D339H mutation.

The BA.2.86 variant had different levels of infectivity and fusion with cells compared to other XBB variants. This suggests that the BA.2.86 variant might have a different shape or structure.

Overall, this study shows that it's important to keep an eye on how the virus is changing and to update the COVID-19 vaccines accordingly. Scientists need to make sure that the vaccines can still protect us from new variants of the virus.

Qu P., Xu K., Faraone JN., Goodarzi N., Zheng YM., Carlin C., Bednash JS., Horowitz JC., Mallampalli RK., Saif LJ., Oltz EM., Jones D., Gumina RJ., Liu SL. Immune evasion, infectivity, and fusogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 and FLip variants. Cell. 2024 Feb 1;187(3):585-595.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.12.026. Epub 2024 Jan 8.