Defining a Highly Conserved Cryptic Epitope for Antibody Recognition of SARS-CoV-2 Variants.

Dear Editor, In recent months,additional Omicron variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2),including the BA.5 sublineage BF.7 and BQ.1.1 and the BA.2 linage recombi-nation XBB,XBB.1.5 and XBB.1.16,have emerged following the BA.2 and BA.5 subvariants.Remarkably,BQ.1.1 and XBB showed substantial neutralization escape as compared with the previous variants,and have gradually become the dominant variants worldwide.1 These facts emphasize the urgency of identifying highly conserved SARS-CoV-2 epitopes,which would be essential for the design of universal vaccines and broadly neutralizing antibodies.