Alternative antigen to defuse SARS-CoV-2 delta variant and its ensuing evolutionary lineage

摘要

Efforts to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic are underway, and vaccination is imposing selection pressure on SARS-CoV-2 1. In this context, a fitness advantage is bestowed on virus variants capable of evading vaccine-induced immune surveillance. Thus, the highly contagious delta variant (B.1.617.2, https://covariants. org/variants/21A.Delta) has been selected as one of the fittest strains and is spreading rapidly 2-4, fueling a threatening infection wave. The extreme infectivity of this variant provides enough substrate for further evolutionary change and makes it likely that its ensuing evolutionary offspring may soon evade the vaccine-induced immune response. Some degree of evasion of induced immune surveillance is already becoming apparent in the omicron strain (B1.1.529). Thus, to effectively complement current vaccination efforts and in anticipation of the vaccine-evading evolutionary fate of SARS-CoV-2, it is imperative to develop targeted therapies against the delta variant that are effective also against its evolutionary offspring.