@RolandBakerIII I don't think this paper suggests people were exposed to #SARSCoV2 20 years ago. Rather, it suggests that at a very low frequency some human antibody gene rearrangements will bind strongly to the #SARSCoV2 RBD even in the absence of an immune response selecting for this. (1/n)
@RolandBakerIII This is not terribly surprising. For instance, it's known that even naive humans sometimes have a bit of antibody reactivity to the #SARSCoV2 RBD (see Fig 1B of this paper by @SCOTTeHENSLEY). Indeed, this type of rare low-level naive reactivity...
@RolandBakerIII @SCOTTeHENSLEY is the basis for an immune response, which must start with some binding.
Additionally, these antibodies have genes similar to IGHV3-53, which is known to naturally bind well to the RBD with minimal somatic hypermutation. (3/n)
Additionally, these antibodies have genes similar to IGHV3-53, which is known to naturally bind well to the RBD with minimal somatic hypermutation. (3/n)
@RolandBakerIII @SCOTTeHENSLEY Finally, note that the experiments in onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ad… involve three rounds of phage panning. Mutations can arise during the phage propagation and selection, so this could serve as a directed evolution process to further increase antibody affinity. (4/n)
@RolandBakerIII @SCOTTeHENSLEY (Sorry, here is paper referenced in above Tweet: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…)
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