Virus variants | The opinion of Marc Veldhoen
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Fotografia do investigador Marc Veldhoen

Marc Veldhoen, professor at FMUL and researcher at the Institute of Molecular Medicine (iMM), wrote an opinion piece in newspaper Público about virus variants, using SARS-CoV-2 as an example. In this text, you will find the main ideas of his piece.

The researcher says that “viruses are small packages of genetic material with instructions to invade their host and multiply there. A virus is not a pleasant guest, it does not care about the host cell, and often destroys it. Viruses change, but the system that fights them, the immune system, accompanies these changes”.

In his opinion, SARS-CoV-2 had two important implications. The first is that, “the virus was not familiar with our cells”, so it went from an unknown host to humans, adapting to us. However, as viruses change, they undergo random mutations, leading to occasional errors in processing the genetic material. When a new variant appears, it is more competitive than the original and gains an advantage.

The second implication concerns the fact that “our immune system did not have a ‘product specification sheet’ describing this virus”, but even without this sheet, the immune system is able to detect the viral invader. "The rapid spread of the virus has also contributed to a better adaptation to humans".

But can these variants escape our immune system? Once again, the scientific evidence seems to indicate that they cannot. Coronaviruses cannot "hide" from the immune system. The researcher says that the best "strategy" for survival of the virus is to be as fast as possible, creating as many viral particles as possible.

The vaccines so far approved (and which allow us to obtain the desired identification card for this virus, without having met it) use a molecule from the outside of SARS-CoV-2, the protein spike or S. This molecule, without which the virus is harmless, is critical to recognizing our cells.

Marc Veldhoen raises another question: are the variants able to escape our immune response? "This is very unlikely", he replies, saying that "the virus specification sheet built after vaccination contains detailed information on all protein S".

“Reducing the neutralization of the virus may allow it to infect us, but the existence of identification cards will guarantee that we will not be sick. In addition, the immune system will be much quicker in its response. It will have the ability to adapt and add new information to the specification sheet of this virus, memorizing the new variant (s) for the next time it finds them”.

Read the opinion piece HERE.