New York, June 25 (TIWN) A single mutation gives SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, the ability to enter cells through another route, opening up the possibility of evading Covid antibodies or vaccines, finds a study.

Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, scientists identified how SARS-CoV-2 gets inside cells to cause infection. All current Covid-19 vaccines and antibody-based therapeutics were thus designed to disrupt this route into cells, which requires a receptor called ACE2.

But, the new study led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis showed that Covid virus has the ability to enter cells via an alternative pathway one that does not require ACE2.

While the researchers did not find evidence of SARS-CoV-2 evasion to vaccines, the discovery does show that the virus can change in unexpected ways and find new ways to cause infection. The study is published in the journal Cell Reports.

"This mutation occurred at one of the spots that changes a lot as the virus circulates in the human population," said Sebla Kutluay, Assistant Professor of Molecular Microbiology at the varsity.

"Most of the time, alternative receptors and attachment factors simply enhance ACE2-dependent entry. But in this case, we have discovered an alternative way to infect a key cell type a human lung cell and that the virus acquired this ability via a mutation that we know arises in the population. This is something we definitely need to know more about," Kutluay added.