Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/hBmawhoOY-s   Unlike CoVid spike proteins that can mutate wildly, the viral polymerase protein common to many coronaviruses remains relatively stable and could be the key to developing vaccines that generate variant-independent immunity.   Molecular biologists and immunologists at UCLA have identified a CoVid RNA polymerase that can evoke an immune response and in so doing lead to its own inactivation by cellular immunity.   The investigators show that the human immune cells, the T killer cells that are capable virus killers, attack this viral polymerase protein and significantly impede the viral replication process.  This leads to viral destruction.  Since this RNA polymerase is common to not only CoVid but to other coronaviruses that cause SARS, MERS, and the common cold, this may be the route to a universal coronavirus vaccine.   It’s to soon to tell for sure, but stay tuned.   https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/pdf/S2211-1247(21)01667-3.pdf?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.