The new coronavirus variant associated with an increase in cases of Covid-19 in South Africa is not only more contagious than previous forms of the virus, but may make some vaccines less effective.
Scientists who want to understand the new strain said they still expect the current crop of approved vaccines to work, but are concerned that a specific mutation, which is also identified in a new variant in Brazil, the way the virus respond, may affect.
“Right now we think a vaccine might be a little less effective,” said Professor Tulio de Oliveira of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, who is leading South Africa’s scientific effort to kill the 501Y.V2 strain. understand, told Financial Times. . ‘[But] among all the types of vaccines that come on the market, we still believe that some of them will be very effective. ”
The mutation in question, called E484K, alters the “receptor binding domain” – an important part of the peak protein that the virus uses to enter human cells. It is also an important place where neutralizing antibodies caused by infection or vaccination bind to the virus.
A team from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle evaluated the ability of antibodies from people previously infected with Sars-Cov-2 to neutralize various new coronavirus strains.
Their study, which was released on Tuesday but not peer-reviewed, found that ’emerging sex lines in South Africa and Brazil with the E484K mutation have the potential for neutralization by the. . . serum antibodies of some individuals ”. However, the effect was much stronger in some people than others, the newspaper said.
Prof de Oliveira’s team in South Africa reached similar conclusions. “This finding on antibody neutralization has been highlighted very strongly in our article,” he said. “There’s a reason to be concerned.”
Prof de Oliveira added that his team would “work for the last 15 days, day and night, at the top laboratories in South Africa” and would soon announce “strong preliminary results”.
The 501Y.V2 variant appeared in Nelson Mandela Bay in South Africa in the Eastern Cape in August, before spreading to other provinces, as the country’s second wave of Covid-19 infections has accelerated in recent weeks. Of the total confirmed cases of 1.1 million so far in South Africa, about 100,000 have been in the past seven days.
Coronavirus variants are emerging around the world as Sars-Cov-2 moves among tens of millions of people. On average, the virus accumulates about two mutations per month, but it can change more rapidly under certain circumstances – for example, within an individual who has a suppressed immune system and remains infected for many weeks.
The South African and Brazilian strains share several mutations with the rapidly spreading B.1.1.7 variant in the United Kingdom, which first appeared in Kent at the end of September. But B.1.1.7 does not have the E484K mutation.
For this reason, “most scientists in view of these variants are more concerned about the South African than the Kent,” said Francois Balloux, director of the University College London Genetics Institute.
Matt Hancock, the British health secretary, on several occasions on Monday expressed concern about the South African variant and said he was “incredibly worried”.
Prof de Oliveira commented on Mr. Hancock, who is regarded by some in South Africa as an ‘very sorry’ attempt to divert attention from the United Kingdom.
“We’re really trying our best to see if the politicization can slow down,” he said. “We work very closely with British scientists. We exchanged scientific data and knowledge almost daily. Our job as the global scientific community is to try to reduce that kind of tension. ”
The United Kingdom and South Africa, unlike most other countries, carried out extensive genomic sequences throughout the pandemic, enabling health officials to detect mutations rapidly. This could mean that other more contagious variants are already spreading unnoticed in other countries.
It is not yet known that any new Sars-Cov-2 variant can cause serious illnesses like the original virus that originated in China in late 2019, but faster distribution rates have piled up greater pressure on hospitals and healthcare systems.
“The most important message from home is that we should not play with this virus by letting it transmit for so long,” Prof de Oliveira said. “More than ever before, this is a global problem and we must look for a global coalition to respond.”