1. Also a good point
    Nate Klingenstein Nate Klingenstein United States says:
    August 21, 2021 at 12:53 AM

    I agree with most of what you wrote, but I wouldn't write off Alpha as a dinosaur.  The evolutionary machinery of SARS-CoV-2 is amazing, and 8 new spike mutations just popped out in an Alpha descendant.  We really don't know what any given variant might spit out as long as it's extant.

    The paper does show that P272L escapes a very common dominant CD8+ T-cell response.  A222 is in an immunodominant epitope for CD4+ cells for one HLA allele and an immunodominant epitope for CD8+ cells for many alleles, so mutations there could very well have T-cell evasive effects.  I would imagine your theory is also accurate.

    The two mutations are not mutually exclusive.  There are 1468 known CD4+ and CD8+ epitopes in SARS-CoV-2.  Each T-cell recognizes approximately 35 epitopes.  We should expect to see more evasion.

    Reply
    • More essential than essential?
      Phil Ip Phil Ip United States says:
      October 5, 2021 at 1:45 AM

      Hi Nate - thanks for your insights.  As a layman with only a few years of life sciences, I'm looking to ask someone a fundamental question: is it possible the mutation in P272L was merely from Proline unavailability and Leucine was "grabbed" during replication?  I know Leucine is an essential amino and Proline is synthesized from various glutamates, BUT if competition for Proline (perhaps due to an mRNA vaccine being given to a silently infected covid patient, as we know covid-19 impairs mitochondrial dyanmics) existed in even certain tissues/cells, could that not force the mutation?

      If you're able to answer, please take a shot.

      Reply
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