The DOI matches its Crossref record; 121 of the 121 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
SARS-CoV-2 variants, spike mutations and immune escape
Open accessAbstract
Although most mutations in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genome are expected to be either deleterious and swiftly purged or relatively neutral, a small proportion will affect functional properties and may alter infectivity, disease severity or interactions with host immunity. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in late 2019 was followed by a period of relative evolutionary stasis lasting about 11 months. Since late 2020, however, SARS-CoV-2 evolution has been characterized by the emergence of sets of mutations, in the context of 'variants of concern', that impact virus characteristics, including transmissibility and antigenicity, probably in response to the changing immune profile of the human population. There is emerging evidence of reduced neutralization of some SARS-CoV-2 variants by postvaccination serum; however, a greater understanding of correlates of protection is required to evaluate how this may impact vaccine effectiveness. Nonetheless, manufacturers are preparing platforms for a possible update of vaccine sequences, and it is crucial that surveillance of genetic and antigenic changes in the global virus population is done alongside experiments to elucidate the phenotypic impacts of mutations. In this Review, we summarize the literature on mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, the primary antigen, focusing on their impacts on antigenicity and contextualizing them in the protein structure, and discuss them in the context of observed mutation frequencies in global sequence datasets.
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“D614G is again associated with the increase in transmissibility, infectivity, and viral load, making the Lambda variant even more lethal [55].”
From Waves and variants of SARS-CoV-2: understanding the causes and effect of the COVID-19 catastrophe (2022) · cites this paper as [55]
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“Each pathogen poses a unique set of challenges, including high lethality, rapid mutations, immune evasion, new strains and variants252–258.”
From mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases: principles, delivery and clinical translation (2021) · cites this paper as [252]
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“Mutations in the spike protein and RBD have been shown to affect antibody neutralisation and thus reduce vaccine-induced immunity [22].”
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In the citing paper
“The Lambda variant spike protein is found to be 3.3 times more resistant to neutralization by the convalescent sera than the parent D614G spike protein and 4.9 times to that of the Alpha variant ones.”
From Waves and variants of SARS-CoV-2: understanding the causes and effect of the COVID-19 catastrophe (2022) · cites this paper as [55]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn the citing paper
“However, reduced sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 variants to antibody and serum neutralization has been widely observed (18–21).”
From Deep learning guided optimization of human antibody against SARS-CoV-2 variants with broad neutralization (2022) · cites this paper as [19]
In the citing paper
“both being immunodominant targets of neutralizing antibodies elicited by COVID-19 vaccines or by SARS-CoV-2 infection (5, 6).”
From Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron by BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine–elicited human sera (2022) · cites this paper as [6]
In the citing paper
“However, sequencing data of SARS-CoV-2 from patients revealed persistent accumulation of new mutations over the last two years of the Covid19 pandemic, leading to the emergence of new viral strains that can be more transmissible or virulent5,6 or evade vaccines7–9.”
From The roles of APOBEC-mediated RNA editing in SARS-CoV-2 mutations, replication and fitness (2022) · cites this paper as [8]
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Citations
Cites
Structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor-binding domain bound to the ACE2 receptor
Lan, J., Ge, J., Yu, J., Shan, S., Zhou, H., Fan, S., Zhang, Q., Shi, X., Wang, Q., Zhang, L., et al. (2020) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2180-5 · Cited by 5,983
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Letko, M., Marzi, A., & Munster, V. (2020) · Nature Microbiology · doi:10.1038/s41564-020-0688-y · Cited by 3,109
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Shu, Y., & McCauley, J. (2017) · Eurosurveillance · doi:10.2807/1560-7917.es.2017.22.13.30494 · Cited by 3,039
A dynamic nomenclature proposal for SARS-CoV-2 lineages to assist genomic epidemiology
Rambaut, A., Holmes, E. C., O’Toole, Á., Hill, V., McCrone, J. T., Ruis, C., du Plessis, L., & Pybus, O. G. (2020) · Nature Microbiology · doi:10.1038/s41564-020-0770-5 · Cited by 2,543
Self-citationTegally, H., Wilkinson, E., Giovanetti, M., Iranzadeh, A., Fonseca, V., Giandhari, J., Doolabh, D., Pillay, S., San, E. J., Msomi, N., et al. (2020) · doi:10.1101/2020.12.21.20248640 · Cited by 2,535
Detection of a SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern in South Africa
Tegally, H., Wilkinson, E., Giovanetti, M., Iranzadeh, A., Fonseca, V., Giandhari, J., Doolabh, D., Pillay, S., San, E. J., Msomi, N., et al. (2021) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03402-9 · Cited by 2,510
Starr, T. N., Greaney, A. J., Hilton, S. K., Ellis, D., Crawford, K. H. D., Dingens, A. S., Navarro, M. J., Bowen, J. E., Tortorici, M. A., Walls, A. C., et al. (2020) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2020.08.012 · Cited by 1,956
Hoffmann, M., Kleine-Weber, H., & Pöhlmann, S. (2020) · Molecular Cell · doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2020.04.022 · Cited by 1,852
Volz, E., Mishra, S., Chand, M., Barrett, J. C., Johnson, R., Geidelberg, L., Hinsley, W. R., Laydon, D. J., Dabrera, G., O’Toole, Á., et al. (2021) · doi:10.1101/2020.12.30.20249034 · Cited by 1,611
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Oral Nirmatrelvir for High-Risk, Nonhospitalized Adults with Covid-19
Hammond, J., Leister-Tebbe, H., Gardner, A., Abreu, P., Bao, W., Wisemandle, W., Baniecki, M., Hendrick, V. M., Damle, B., Simón-Campos, A., et al. (2022) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmoa2118542 · Cited by 2,323
Omicron escapes the majority of existing SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies
Cao, Y., Wang, J., Jian, F., Xiao, T., Song, W., Yisimayi, A., Huang, W., Li, Q., Wang, P., An, R., et al. (2022) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04385-3 · Cited by 2,006
mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases: principles, delivery and clinical translation
Chaudhary, N., Weissman, D., & Whitehead, K. A. (2021) · Nature Reviews Drug Discovery · doi:10.1038/s41573-021-00283-5 · Cited by 1,555
Cele, S., Jackson, L., Khoury, D. S., Khan, K., Moyo-Gwete, T., Tegally, H., San, J. E., Cromer, D., Scheepers, C., Amoako, D., et al. (2021) · doi:10.1101/2021.12.08.21267417 · Cited by 1,333
“Owing to the large number of mutations in the spike protein and elsewhere on the virus (https://covdb.stanford.edu/page/ mutation-viewer/#omicron), there is concern that this variant will exhibit substantial escape from vaccine-elicited immunity 4,5 .”
Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant: a new chapter in the COVID-19 pandemic
Karim, S. S. A., & Karim, Q. A. (2021) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(21)02758-6 · Cited by 1,302
Metadata
- Authors
- Harvey, W. T., Carabelli, A. M., Jackson, B., Gupta, R. K., Thomson, E. C., Harrison, E. M., Ludden, C., Reeve, R., Rambaut, A., COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, Peacock, S. J., & Robertson, D. L.
- Affiliations
- MRC University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (GB)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
- Wellcome Sanger Institute (GB)
- University of Glasgow (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Robertson, David L.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Reviews Microbiology
- Published
- 2021-06-01
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 409-424
- ISSN
- 1740-1526 (ISSN-L)
- 1740-1534
- PMC
- PMC8167834
- OpenAlex
- W3165479483
- Cited by
- 3,528
- References
- 103
- Citations by year
- 2026: 220 · 2025: 310 · 2024: 475 · 2023: 801 · 2022: 1283 · 2021: 420
- FWCI
- 87.86
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Reviews Microbiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Northumbria Research Link (Northumbria University) (acceptedVersion)
- Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion)
- Apollo
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (Z/17/Z, 206298/Z/17/Z, 220977/Z/20/Z, 220977/Z/20/Z, 206298/Z/17/Z, 206298)
- UK Research and Innovation (MR/W005611/1/, MC_PC_19027)
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS-CSF4-Torok)
- University of Glasgow
- Directorate for Biological Sciences
- Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12014, MC UU 12014/12, MC_PC_19026, MR/W005611/1, MR/S00291X/1, COVID-19, MR/R024758/1)
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/R012679/1)
- H2020 European Research Council (725422)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › vaccines and immunoinformatics approaches
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Animal Science and Zoology › Animal Virus Infections Studies
- Keywords
- SARS-CoV-2, spike protein mutations, variants of concern, immune evasion, antigenicity, neutralizing antibodies, vaccine effectiveness, vaccine update, viral evolution, mutation frequency, COVID-19 pandemic
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 Vaccines, Amino Acids, Epitopes, Antigenic Variation, Humans, Mutation, Protein Conformation, Immune Evasion, Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus
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