Study: SARS-CoV-2 Spike Proteins Impaired DNA Repair That Can Lead to Defective Immunity and Cancers

Carcinogens in food, ultraviolet light, and air pollution can cause DNA damage that can cause pre-cancerous cells. The good news is that the body has several systems that can repair broken DNA. The DNA repair systems allow the body to ward off infections and prevent cancer.

The bad news is in the new study, SARS–CoV–2 Spike Impairs DNA Damage Repair and Inhibits V(D)J Recombination In Vitro. It is in the peer-reviewed journal Viruses. 

The study showed that the SARS-Cov-2 virus has three ways to prevent DNA repair.

A. SARS-CoV-2 Non-structural and spike proteins impair DNA Repair Systems

The study showed that the non-structural proteins and full-length spike of the SARS-CoV-2 virus during a COVID-19 infection could hamper the DNA repair systems called Homologous recombination (HR) and non-homologous end-joining repair  (NHEJ). 

HR and NHEJ are essential in putting together broken DNA. Problems with these repair systems affect the adaptive immune response and contribute to severe COVID-19 disease.

Tests showed that the spike proteins could impede DNA repair to a greater extent than the non-structural protein. The authors warned,

Our findings reveal a potential molecular mechanism by which the spike protein might impede adaptive immunity and underscore
the potential side effects of full-length spike-based vaccines.

The  Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, and Moderna vaccines all utilize the full-length spike protein.

B. Spike Proteins Blunt V(D)J Recombination

V(D)J recombination stands for the variable (V), joining (J), and diversity (D) gene segments. 

The adaptive immunity “adapts” to new challenges every day. Germs have different protein sequences. The adaptive immune system has to make lymphocytes and antibodies that are specific to them.

The immune system makes new protein sequences for the natural killer T-cells, B-cells, antibodies, and other immune cells. The modifications will allow them to recognize and neutralize nearly all pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, parasites, and pre-cancerous “altered self cells.”

V(D)J makes it possible for the body to react faster or be immune to future infections.

C. Spike Proteins Prevent the Recruitment of BRCA1 and 53BP1 Checkpoint Proteins

Checkpoint proteins like the BRCA1 and 53BP1 are called to repair DNA. The authors said, “We found that the spike protein markedly inhibited both BRCA1 and 53BP1 foci formation”.

BRCA1 is a tumor suppressor gene that produces the Breast cancer type 1 susceptibility protein. It prevents breast cancer by repairing damaged DNA and destroying cells with unrepairable DNA. 

According to the National Institute of Health’s BRCA1 Webpage, BRCA1 mutations lead to variants that make it ineffective in repairing DNA damage.

Variants lead to breast cancer, fallopian tube cancer, ovarian cancer, primary peritoneal cancer, prostate cancer in men, and pancreatic cancer. Other diseases are subtypes of Fanconi anemia, acute myeloid leukemia, and childhood solid tumors. [2]

Tumor suppressor p53-binding protein one or 53BP1, as the name implies, is another cancer-suppressing gene. 53BP1 is underexpressed in most triple-negative breast cancer. [3]

Triple-negative breast cancer is any breast cancer that does not have estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2/neu. Triple-negative breast cancer is more challenging to treat since most hormone therapies target three receptors, so triple-negative cancers often require combination therapies. A 2021 study showed 34 types of human cancers associated with defective 53BP1. [4]

The study showed that spike proteins were shown to prevent the recruitment of BRCA1 and 53BP1 in vitro. It is logical to assume that any hindrance to the recruitment of tumor-suppressing genes is similar to having harmful BRCA1 variants and defective 53BP1 that are ineffective in repairing DNA.

We won’t know for sure if an explosion in cancer will happen in the future. What we know is that spike protein vaccines diminish the ability to fight infections for the short term.

That is why the CDC defines breakthrough infections as only applying two weeks after the second vaccination.

For this surveillance, a vaccine breakthrough infection is defined as the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA or antigen in a respiratory specimen collected from a person ≥14 days after receipt of all recommended doses of an FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine.

Conclusion

The study showed that the SARS-CoV-2 proteins, especially the spike proteins, can damage the DNA repair systems. The damage can undermine the adaptive immune system. The end effect is the inability to fight infections and possibly an increase in cancer cases in the future.

Everyone should be familiar with the early signs of cancer. You can find it at this link from the National Cancer Institute.

Cancer.org has everything you want to know about cancer screening here.

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Reference:

1. Jiang H, Mei YF. SARS-CoV-2 Spike Impairs DNA Damage Repair and Inhibits V(D)J Recombination In Vitro. Viruses. 2021;13(10):2056. Published 2021 Oct 13. doi:10.3390/v13102056
2. NIH – BRCA Gene Mutations: Cancer Risk and Genetic Testing
3. Bouwman P, Aly A, Escandell JM, et al. 53BP1 loss rescues BRCA1 deficiency and is associated with triple-negative and BRCA-mutated breast cancers. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2010;17(6):688-695. doi:10.1038/nsmb.1831
4. Zhang et al. Cancer-associated 53BP1 mutations induce DNA damage repair defects. Cancer Lett. 2021 Mar 31;501:43-54. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2020.12.033. Epub 2020 Dec 24. PMID: 33359708. [abstract]

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