Scientists have eliminated a handful of mutations in the coronavirus that they say could pose new challenges to public health if they spread widely.
Their focus: the small vein proteins that cover the outside of the virus.
It is these proteins that researchers have successfully targeted to create vaccines and use them to replenish the body’s immune system to make antibodies to fight the virus. But it is also where they observed mutations that forced the vaccine manufacturers to respond. A variant first found in South Africa is of particular importance due to mutations in the virus’ ear protein that can make antibodies less effective.
And while none of these changes appear to result in a virus that could elude current vaccines, it is an intense focal point for coronavirus researchers.
“The vein protein is like the key that unlocks our cells,” said Simon Clarke, associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. ‘If you have mutations in the vein protein, it can make the key work more effectively, or it can change the structure of the key so slightly that it can still access our cells and now antibodies can not bind to it. and prevent it from working. ”
An early analysis by Moderna found that the vaccine appeared to be less effective against the South African variant, but antibodies remained above protection levels. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is only slightly less effective against the South African strain, according to a study that has not yet been peer-reviewed.
The coronavirus has probably undergone thousands of changes since it first spread to humans. Several different variants, including one that was first reported in the UK and another that allegedly originated in Brazil, are already being followed worldwide.
But scientists remain anxious about the emergence of other coronavirus variants, especially when it comes to what the vaccines are aging.
“Mutations can make a virus more transmissible or make a virus less susceptible to some antibodies, so it’s always a big problem,” Clarke said.
So far, it seems that the vaccines protect against the known variants, says dr. Bruce Y. Lee, a professor of health policy and management at City University of New York. He added that even if a vaccine is less protective against one strain, there are still benefits, such as preventing serious cases of Covid-19, which not only help patients but also minimize stress on hospitals and healthcare professionals. restrict.
“It’s like how even if a flu vaccine is 30 percent effective, we still recommend getting a flu shot,” Lee said.
But that does not mean that there are no risks yet – especially with the important role that the protein of the virus plays.
Both the South African variant and the British variant contain a vein protein mutation called N501Y which is thought to make these strains more contagious. The South African variant also carries a mutation known as E484K, also on the vein protein, which can make it less susceptible to antibodies produced by the vaccines or which are built up due to natural infection.
And because the vaccines target the peak protein, Lee said, there are concerns that mutations to this part of the virus could affect how well the vaccines work.
“If you change the ear protein enough, the question becomes: how will the immune response change?” he said. “The effectiveness of the vaccines really depends on our immune response to that protein.”
Research is still ongoing, but the observed decline in vaccine efficacy has already prompted Moderna to adapt its existing vaccine to make it more effective against emerging strains. Although the Moderna vaccine appears to be protective against the known variants, Stéphane Bancel, the company’s CEO, said last month that the upgrades were being developed out of an abundance of caution. “
AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, which are jointly developing a vaccine that will be allowed to be used in the UK but not yet in the United States, announced on Wednesday that they plan to produce an upgraded version to protected from the known variants that would be available in the fall.
And scientists expect more variants to emerge as the pandemic develops. Scientists in the UK reported on Tuesday that the E484K mutation seen in the South African variant was also found in a small number of cases where the British tribe was involved in England.
“The more a virus repeats, the more likely you are to have random changes,” Lee said. “Many of these changes will not make a difference, but every now and then you get a change that gives the virus an advantage, that can better survive the virus, repeat or infect people.”
The prospect is urgently needed that countries around the world need to aggressively control the spread of the virus, thus limiting the opportunity for new, more problematic variants to spread.
“What we are doing could really affect the trajectory of the pandemic in the coming weeks,” Lee said.