3 ms·
This is one of the more accessible and straightforward microbiology papers I've read. There's no fluff; it tells you how to reproduce and where to buy the mater
by lend000 5y ago
This is one of the more accessible and straightforward microbiology papers I've read. There's no fluff; it tells you how to reproduce and where to buy the materials, and it seems to balance terms in the jargon-heavy field with short explanations, requiring minimal googling to get an overview if you are topically familiar cell biology and chemistry (not to mention VDJ recombination, a fascinating bio-algorithm which should inspire any computer scientist [0]). Compare this to a typical paper where there is an off-putting amount of fluff and then straight into dense unreadable jargon for the rest of the paper.
The key takeaway seems to be that not all antibodies are equal, and there are probably on the order of 10^X antibodies that might work well enough to be cured for a specific coronavirus, but these antibody molecules can interact strongly or weakly with other systems in the body. You want one that is a very strong antagonist of the target site on the virus while being as unreactive as possible with everything else. Getting the very best protein on the first try (either via infection or vaccine production) is never guaranteed, but the hope is that it would be good enough and not cause other problems. Also note that you can produce problematic antibodies and T/B cell surface receptors in response to either a vaccine or a virus (see long covid).
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V(D)J_recombination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V(D)J_recombination
- AstralStorm 5y agoThe implication being that unmodified spike protein and protein producing vaccines could be less effective than some modified ones and also cause a temporary dip in immunity due to locking out some naive B cells, is that correct?
- coldacid 5y agoFrom my reading, possibly more than just a temporary dip for those who have a severe case of COVID-19.