If possible, I'd like to pick the brains of the more biologically inclined out there.
Piggybacking off of this article that @fitterhappierAJ posted today, this is something that's been on my mind for a long time now and I'm not afraid that I feel like I'm missing something.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00086-1
I've read about "original antigenic sin" aka imprinting for a year or two now in regards to COVID and vaccines. I believe I understand the basics and have long been under the impression that continually updated mRNA vaccines would give positive, but limited benefits.
Given what we know, should we see the bivalent vaccine as having over-performed thus far? Is there a real benefit to continually updated mRNA vaccines after all?
@BE @fitterhappierAJ I'm not sure antigenic sin applies to recognizing just a specific spike protein vs. other possible proteins of a viral nucleocapsid all at once?
@chipmcdonald @fitterhappierAJ @knottedthreads I read article after article for a couple of days and in the end I think I have a much better handle on how it all works, so thank you both for responding!
I found this article to be a nice, simple summary of some of the ideas I encountered in the literature:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1471490622000485
