- Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s COVID-19 shots were at least ten times less effective against a coronavirus variant in a new study.
- Researchers have tested the vaccines on the variant first found in South Africa, which is now found in 20 US states.
- A mutation on the variant called E484K appears to be a “major contributor”, the authors said.
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COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech appear less effective against the coronavirus variant first found in South Africa, a laboratory study has suggested.
The percentage of protective antibodies that neutralized the variant – called B.1.351, which was recorded in 20 U.S. states – was 12.4 times lower for the COVID-19 shot from Moderna than against the original coronavirus, and 10.3 times lower. for Pfizer’s, the study writes. said.
This was a greater decrease than in previous laboratory studies that tested the vaccines against manufactured forms of the variant. For this study, the researchers used correct forms of the variant taken from people who contracted the virus.
Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been approved for emergency use in the US.
B.1.351 was first detected in South Africa in October 2020. It has since spread to 42 countries, including the United States, where it has spread to at least 20 states, including California and Texas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. There are 81 reported cases of B.1.351 in the U.S. in general, the CDC said.
The researchers found that the antibody activity of both vaccines was “essentially unchanged” compared to the variant first found in the UK, B.1.1.7. According to the CDC, there are 3,037 reported cases in the US of B.1.1.7, and experts believe that it will soon become the dominant tribe in the US.
The scientists, from Columbia University, also tested laboratory-made viruses with certain mutations. They said that one specific mutation, E484K, was a ‘significant contributor’ to the B.1.351 variant’s ability to evade the antibody response. E484K is not usually found in B.1.1.7, the variant first found in the United Kingdom.
The study was accepted by the science journal Nature but has not yet been published.
Take samples from the real world
In the experiment, scientists took ten blood samples from people who received two doses of Pfizer vaccine, 28 days after their second dose, and 12 samples from those who received two doses of Moderna’s vaccine, 43 days after their second dose. They then compare how well antibodies in the blood samples ‘neutralized’ the original coronavirus, compared to the correct B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 coronavirus variants.
The size of the sample was small and the antibody response is only one aspect of the immune response, so it is unclear how well the vaccines work against the variant first found in real life in South Africa.
Pfizer has previously performed petri dish tests that showed a less potent antibody response to a coronavirus variant in the laboratory that mimicked the variant first found in South Africa. This was not the exact B.1.351 variant.
Moderna performed similar tests and said that the vaccine was well kept against the mutations found in B.1.1.7, the variant first found in the UK, but less good against the mutations found in B.1.351 found, the variant first identified in South Africa. Africa. Again, it used laboratory-manufactured variants.
Both companies said in January they were developing booster shots to tackle the B.1.351 variant.
None of the vaccines have been properly tested against the variant that was first found in South Africa in the real world.
In Israel, Pfizer’s vaccine has been shown to be very effective against the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first found in the United Kingdom. About 80% of Israelis with COVID-19 are infected with B.1.1.7.
The COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson was less effective in the clinical trials that took place in South Africa.