Developing coronavirus vaccines presents challenges due to rapid viral mutation rates

Eric Dumonteil, Claudia Herrera. Polymorphism and selection pressure of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and diagnostic antigens: implications for immune evasion and serologic diagnostic performance. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.18.158329

Examines antigen diversity and diversifying selection across thousands of viral genomes, noting that new clades constantly emerge and complicate broad vaccine efficacy.

Tomer Hertz, Liel Cohen-Lavi, Sinai Sachren, Eilay Koren, Anat Burkovitz. Computational fingerprinting of immune-mediated pressure on SARS-CoV-2 viral evolution reveals preliminary evidence for immune-evasion. 2022. https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.208.supp.125.09

Uses computational modeling to demonstrate how specific viral mutations contribute to immune escape and challenge adaptive immune responses following vaccination.

Dablu Lal Gupta, DN Rao. Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Variants and Their Impact on Immune Evasion and Vaccine-Induced Immunity. 2023. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202309.0507.v1

Summarizes how structural mutations in the spike and RBD domains reduce neutralizing antibody responses, thereby lowering vaccine efficacy and complicating immunization efforts.

Wentai Ma, Haoyi Fu, Fanchong Jian, Yunlong Cao, Mingkun Li. Underlying driving forces of the SARS-CoV-2 evolution: immune evasion and ACE2 binding affinity. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.02.06.527236

Analyzes how viral evolution driven by immune evasion and changing receptor-binding affinities continuously alters the antigenic profile of SARS-CoV-2.