Evading the immune system (IMAGE)

Boston Children's Hospital

Evading the immune system

Caption

Mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 variants cause changes in the electrostatic potential (electric charge at rest) on the spike surface. Here, positively charged areas are shown in blue and negatively charged areas in red. In the Beta variant, the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and N-terminal domain (NTD) have changed substantially, affecting the ability of antibodies to bind to and neutralize the virus.

Credit

Bing Chen, PhD, Boston Children's Hospital

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