Antigenic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in immunocompromised hosts.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives/aims

Prolonged infections of immunocompromised individuals have been proposed as a crucial source of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic. In principle, sustained within-host antigenic evolution in immunocompromised hosts could allow novel immune escape variants to emerge more rapidly, but little is known about how and when immunocompromised hosts play a critical role in pathogen evolution.

Materials and methods

Here, we use a simple mathematical model to understand the effects of immunocompromised hosts on the emergence of immune escape variants in the presence and absence of epistasis.

Conclusions

We show that when the pathogen does not have to cross a fitness valley for immune escape to occur (no epistasis), immunocompromised individua

SUBMITTER: Smith CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10061940 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature