Using a tool called VirScan, Brigham investigators found that people produced shared antibody responses to certain regions of the virus, likely leading to selective pressure and new variants that can repeatedly escape detection by prior immunity. The human body is capable of creating a vast, dive
Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that humans tend to produce antibodies that target the same viral regions repeatedly, called “public epitopes.” Using a tool called VirScan, the team analyzed blood samples from the U.S., Peru, and France, and discovered 376 commonly targeted epitopes. These public epitopes allow viruses to mutate a single amino acid and reinfect previously immune populations.
The human body is capable of creating a vast, diverse repertoire of antibodies—the Y-shaped sniffer dogs of the immune system that can find and flag foreign invaders. Despite our ability to create a range of antibodies to target viruses, humans create antibodies that target the same viral regions again and again, according to a new study led by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, and Harvard Medical School.
Before the team’s study, there were hints, but no clear evidence, that people’s immune systems didn’t target sites on a viral protein at random. In isolated examples, investigators had seen recurrent antibody responses across individuals—people recreating antibodies to home in on the same viral protein location . But the study by Elledge and colleagues helps explain the extent and underlying mechanisms of this phenomenon.
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