Preliminary research on parent strain XBB has shown that the virus attaches more tightly to human cells than other Omicron variants, such as BA.2.75 and BA.2
The XBB.1.5 variant features a new mutation at the 486 position of the spike, which is the protein the virus uses to bind to the ACE2 receptor protein on cells in the human respiratory tract.predicted that a change in the spike protein at this position would allow a variant to escape previous antibodies. Those predictions seem to be correct.
"Bivalent boosters seem to be working the way they are supposed to," says Suthar, by shifting our immunity towards Omicron variants. He speculates that the bivalent booster would provide some protection against XBB.1.5, based on its similarity to other Omicron variants. But his research also suggests that even the bivalent booster may not block XBB.1.5 breakthrough infections.
"It is difficult to say anything about pathogenicity of XBB.1.5 yet," says Kei Sato, a virologist at the University of Tokyo, since there are no data yet. However, Sato's, not yet peer reviewed, on parent strain XBB has shown that the virus attaches more tightly to human cells than other Omicron variants, such as BA.2.75 and BA.2, which suggests it might cause more severe disease. But when hamsters were infected with XBB, the disease symptoms were no worse than those caused by BA.
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