“In principle, mutations can also work against each other,” said Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Moore’s team is among dozens worldwide trying to understand whether current vaccines will work against omicron. The researchers are creating artificial versions of the virus that contain all of omicron’s mutations, rather than making judgments based on a subset of mutations. Studying the single mutation “turned out to be misleading.”Omicron carries a mutation called N501Y, which is thought to allow the virus to bind to human cells more tightly. Omicron has a cluster of mutations that are all linked to tighter binding to human cells.

Source: bd News24 November 30, 2021 20:53 UTC