BOSTON – Wonderful. Awesome. Fantastic. These are the adjectives that Emory University researcher Mehul Suthar used to describe the immunity levels just after Moderna’s second dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
But Suthar and colleagues at Emory’s Vaccine Center found that the astonishing immunity was blunted after six months, but not to such an extent that the vaccine was not effective. In fact, Suthar estimated that neutralizing antibodies had to linger for one to two years in three age groups studied – 18 to 55, 56 to 70 and 71 and older.
That is, the neutralization of antibodies against the virus strain that the vaccine is designed to handle, which is the only one circulating during its development: the one from Wuhan.
“There are so many more variants,” Suthar said. ‘This is really the next set of questions. How well does this durability hold in light of these variants? ”
Against the British or Kent variant – B.1.1.7 – bet Suthar on the vaccine of Moderna and others will do well. But other variants contain a mutation known as E484K or 484, which was also found in a limited number of samples of B.1.1.7.
“The 484 mutation has been identified by several groups, including ours, as appearing to elicit antibody responses,” Suthar said. “Other groups are finding that mutations within what is called the N-terminal domain of that peak protein also encode escape antibodies.”
Suthar said the question becomes whether lowering antibody levels with current COVID-19 vaccines would normally leave the hosts open for re-infection through variants with ‘escape antibody’ mutations.
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‘Does that mean we need an amplifier to help us get back to that amazing level? It is unclear, “he said.
It is also unclear – and under the study – whether an enhancer with the same vaccine formula will do the trick against variants, or whether the vaccine will have to readjust to stop a specific mutation.
As these issues are studied, COVID-19 is equivalent to a global field day.
“About 75% of the vaccines produced go to only 10 countries in the world,” said Dr. Ingrid Katz of Brigham and Women’s Hospital said, who recently did a piece in the New England Journal of Medicine a call for a global vaccination effort.
According to Katz, according to the current vaccination rate, it could take four years to immunize the rest of the world.
“And I think it’s a real problem when you think about the number of variants that can continue,” she said. ‘Even in this small time, during the past year, we have seen several variants emerge. So it’s only going to increase further. ”
And Suthar does not know it. He pointed to the emergence of numerous new tribes in Brazil, Mexico and the recent importation of a ‘double mutant’ from India.
“Three days ago, four days ago, it was found in the San Francisco Bay Area,” he said. “You can see how mutants in one area, one geographical location of the world, can spread and sow themselves in another geographical location.”
Suthar said that mask wear, to reduce the spread and transmission of COVID-19, is the key to delaying the emergence of new variants.
“Because of the rate of transmission and spread of this virus, this virus has only made it possible to test the mutation space,” he said, “to find out what works best for the virus to infect. , to transmit. “
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