Advertisement

One vaccine to beat COVID, Sars, Mers and common cold – possible?

One vaccine to beat COVID, Sars, Mers and common cold – possible?

SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – belongs to the family of betacoronaviruses that cause everything from the common cold to Mers (which kills about one in three people infected). Betacoronaviruses use their spikes to attach to cells by latching onto specific targets on the cells called receptors. Scientists from countries including the US and France have examined these spikes and discovered that they are made up of two pieces, or “domains”, imaginatively called S1 and S2.