Patients cured of COVID-19 may develop ‘superimmunity’ against the variants, but everyone should get the vaccine anyway

A team of scientists from the National Institutes of Health in the United States and the Institute of Communicable Diseases of South Africa conducted a study to find out how well people are protected against the coronavirus infection. risk of being exposed to new variants, especially those of “concern”. They found that, at least in the sample analyzed, some people’s bodies develop “superimmunity” against the variants. But this does not happen with everyone.

The result of the scientific study published yesterday in the journal Science Yes demonstrates immunological variability between different people after having COVID-19 disease. These differences stress the importance that people who are cured also have access to COVID-19 vaccines as they are not exempt from being re-infected and developing severe symptoms.

“The emergence of highly transmissible variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that are resistant to therapeutic antibodies highlights the need to continue to find broadly reactive antibodies,” wrote scientists led by Nancy Sullivan and John Misasi of the Research Center of Vaccines, which belongs to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“We have identified four antibodies targeting the receptor binding domain of three convalescent donors. early outbreaks with potent neutralizing activity against 23 variants which include the variants of concern, ”they noted. “Two antibodies are ultra-powerful,” they stressed. “We define the structural and functional determinants of binding of the four antibodies targeting the variants of concern, and demonstrate that the combinations of two antibodies decrease the in vitro generation of escape mutants, suggesting their potential to attenuate the development of resistance. », Said the authors of the book.

The results of the published study “show that very potent neutralizing antibodies with activity against the variants of concern were present in at least 3 of 4 recovered subjects who had been infected with ancestral variants of SARS-CoV-2. They had had mild or moderate images of the disease. According to the scientists, the results “suggest that these antibodies were generated in subjects who quickly brought their infection under control. and it is unlikely that they were generated due to the generation of an E484 escape mutation during the disease ”. Too they believe that “These antibodies represent a potential way to achieve both amplitude against current variants of concern and mitigate risk against those that may be developed in the future.”

Currently, according to the World Health Organization, there are 4 worrying variants of the coronavirus. They now have Greek letter names: Alpha, was detected in England in September 2020; Beta, in South Africa, in May 2020; Gamma (or also known as P.1), in Manaus, Brazil, in November; and the last to be placed in this category was Delta.

The most feared is the Delta variant, which was first discovered last October in India, and quickly spread around the world. It has caused a rebound in cases in several European countries, such as the United Kingdom. In June, Delta was detected in samples from COVID-19 patients from more than 80 countries, including the Latin American region. It is classified as a “variant of concern” and has necessitated an adjustment of public health measures in several countries.

A few days ago, Australian experts let the public know that the Delta variant of the coronavirus can be spread during a brief encounter that lasts between five and ten seconds. Jeannette Young, health officer for Queensland, Australia, said that “only very fleeting contact is needed to cause contagion with the delta variant”. “It seems like five or ten seconds of close contact can be a problem,” he said.

In Australia, they alerted the population after detecting infections almost instantaneously, within seconds. One took place in a Sydney shopping center, and was performed by a person who was infected just by crossing into a person infected with the Delta variant.

In addition to the worrisome variants, the WHO registers other variants of the coronavirus as “of interest”. These are variants that have increased their frequency in samples of patients with community-transmitted COVID-19 within one country or across countries, and they merit further study to assess their impact. Currently, there are 7 variants of interest considered by the WHO. Two of them were first detected in South America: one, called Zeta, was found in Brazil in April 2020, and the other, known as Lambda, has first reported in Peru in December 2020.

The lambda variant of the coronavirus was popularly known as the “Andean”. It has also progressed around the world from South America. It was classified as “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization on June 14. A few days ago, the first study on the relationship between the Lambda variant and vaccine protection was published.

The analysis of cell cultures that was carried out in June in Argentina, which has not yet been peer reviewed in a scientific journal, found that the COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V would continue to provide high protection if a person becomes infected. with the Lambda variant of the coronavirus.

“The results of our study mean that vaccines like Sputnik V continue to provide protection against the Lambda variant. The rest is under evaluation. Hopefully that’s the case too. But as long as the tests are not done, we cannot say so, ”he said last Wednesday to Infobae researcher Gabriela Tusk, du Conicet, one of the authors of the book.

A significant decrease was observed in the neutralizing activity of sera from individuals vaccinated with Sputnik V against the Gamma variant. This result corroborated previous and published data on Pfizer / BioNTech and Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccines, the researchers said.

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