Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, according to an early study, is effective against a major mutation found in variants of the virus that spreads faster than the original strain.
While viruses are mutating all the time, scientists are concerned that some new mutations in the new coronavirus, specifically those in a new variant discovered in South Africa, may make vaccines less effective. Live Science reported earlier. The South African variant, known as 501.V2, as well as another variant known in the UK as B.1.1.7, seem to both spread more easily than the original virus, probably because they are both the same mutations have in the SARS-CoV-2 peak protein, the weapon that the virus uses to invade human cells.
Scientists are now working to understand how these mutations affect the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines. A group of researchers from Pfizer and the University of Texas’ medical branch in Galveston generated a version of the coronavirus containing a mutation called N501Y, which is present on the protein of both the variants found in the United Kingdom and South Africa occurs.
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This mutation is particularly important because it is located at the binding site of the ear protein and is known to increase the virus’ ability to bind to human cells, write the authors of the study, which was published in the January 7 issue of is on the preprint database bioRxiv, and has not yet been judged by peers.
To find out how the mutation could affect the vaccines, the researchers compared how a virus with the new mutation performed against the vaccine, compared to a previous version of the virus that did not have the mutation. To do this, they tested whether the viruses were neutralized in blood samples taken from 20 people previously vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine; because these people are vaccinated, their blood samples contain molecules that can fight the virus, including so-called neutralizing antibodies which prevents the coronavirus from invading cells in the first place.
There was ‘no reduction in neutralizing activity against the virus that has the’ new mutation, the researchers write in the study. However, a “limitation” of the study is that the researchers did not test a variant that contained all the mutations found on the peak proteins of the rapidly spreading strains in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
But researchers are investigating these other mutations in additional studies, Phil Dormitzer, Pfizer’s vice president and chief scientific officer of viral vaccines, told STAT. Moderna and AstraZeneca are also conducting similar experiments, according to The Associated Press.
Because the SARS-CoV-2 virus, like other viruses, will continue to develop, it is important to constantly monitor it for mutations that may affect the effectiveness of the vaccine and to be prepared for the possibility of a future mutation necessitating changes to vaccines. wrote the researchers.
“Such an update of the vaccine will be facilitated by the flexibility of mRNA-based vaccine technology, “they added.
In other words, since both Pfizer and Moderna created mRNA-based vaccines, the researchers will only exchange the genetic code they used to encode the spike protein in those vaccines with a new version that includes the new mutations. Live Science reported earlier. “These data do not indicate the need for change, but the mutations are getting close enough to home that we need to be prepared,” Dormitzer told STAT.
Originally published on Live Science.