Molecular and Cellular Biology Program, University of Washington, Seattle, United States.
Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, United States.
Elife. 2021 Jan 19;10:e64509. doi: 10.7554/eLife.64509.
Seasonal coronaviruses (OC43, 229E, NL63, and HKU1) are endemic to the human population, regularly infecting and reinfecting humans while typically causing asymptomatic to mild respiratory infections. It is not known to what extent reinfection by these viruses is due to waning immune memory or antigenic drift of the viruses. Here we address the influence of antigenic drift on immune evasion of seasonal coronaviruses. We provide evidence that at least two of these viruses, OC43 and 229E, are undergoing adaptive evolution in regions of the viral spike protein that are exposed to human humoral immunity. This suggests that reinfection may be due, in part, to positively selected genetic changes in these viruses that enable them to escape recognition by the immune system. It is possible that, as with seasonal influenza, these adaptive changes in antigenic regions of the virus would necessitate continual reformulation of a vaccine made against them.
季节性冠状病毒（OC43、229E、NL63 和 HKU1）在人类群体中普遍存在，它们经常感染和再次感染人类，通常引起无症状至轻度呼吸道感染。目前尚不清楚这些病毒的再感染是由于免疫记忆减弱还是病毒的抗原漂移所致。在这里，我们研究了抗原漂移对季节性冠状病毒免疫逃逸的影响。我们提供的证据表明，至少有两种病毒，即 OC43 和 229E，在病毒刺突蛋白的暴露于人体体液免疫的区域中正在经历适应性进化。这表明再感染可能部分是由于这些病毒中发生了正向选择的遗传变化，使它们能够逃避免疫系统的识别。可能的情况是，与季节性流感一样，这些抗原区域的适应性变化将需要不断地重新配制针对这些病毒的疫苗。
