The SLS amplifiers are stacked in the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.Credit: NASA
NASA compiles powerful rockets in depth
Engineers have compiled the twin booster rockets for NASA’s massive Space Launch System (SLS) – the first depth rocket since Saturn V, which sent astronauts to the moon. Since November, workers have been using a large crane to stack segments of the boosters vertically in the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The amplifiers will eventually be attached to the rocket’s 65-foot-long nuclear stage, which is undergoing testing at the Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis in Mississippi. NASA is developing the SLS as part of its Artemis program, which aims to land the first woman and the next man on the moon by 2024.
The Sputnik V vaccine uses adenoviruses, which are the cause of colds, to send SARS-CoV-2 genetic material into the cells of vaccines.Credit: Yelena Afonina / TASS / Getty
Sputnik V vaccine does not match a rapidly spreading variant
A variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus detected in South Africa can evade antibodies elicited by the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19.
Many vaccines – including Sputnik V, developed in Russia – cause the production of antibodies that target the SARS-CoV-2 protein called spike, which uses the virus to infect host cells. Scientists are concerned that the vaccines may be ineffective against SARS-CoV-2 variants with mutations in the spike-encoding gene.
Benhur Lee at the Icahn School of Medicine on Mount Sinai in New York City and his colleagues obtained samples of antibody-laden blood serum from 12 people vaccinated with Sputnik V (S. Ikegame) et al. Pre-print at medRxiv https://doi.org/f5h9; 2021). The authors tested the serum against benign viruses designed to produce the peak versions found in certain SARS-CoV-2 variants. Eight of the 12 samples did not inhibit viruses equipped with peak of B.1.351, the variant identified in South Africa. But the samples effectively overcame viruses with peak of the B.1.1.7 variant, which was detected in Britain.
The emergence of variants may require a new generation of vaccines, the authors say. The findings have not yet been judged by peers.
Healthcare workers examine people in Luanda for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.Credit: Ampe Rogerio / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
Air traveler delivers a new variant full of mutations
A coronavirus variant identified in Angola has more mutations than any previously identified strain.
A team led by Tulio de Oliveira, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, and Silvia Lutucuta, at the Angolan Ministry of Health in Luanda, identified the variant after taking samples from three people from Tanzania in Tanzania to Angola, evaluated. February 2021 (T. de Oliveira et al. Pre-print at medRxiv https://doi.org/f48g; 2021). The variant, called A.VOI.V2, contains 34 mutations, including 14 in the vein protein, that the virus uses to infect cells.
The author says that the variant should be further investigated because it contains mutations that can help it escape the immune responses of some people. The finding has not yet been judged by peers.