Studies warn Brazilian variant infects those who already had COVID-19 or who received the Coronavac vaccine

A preliminary study by Brazilian researchers warned that Amazonian variant of coronavirus may bypass antibodies produced by Chinese coronavac vaccine, manufactured by the Butantan Institute and the main antidote used in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign at the South American giant.

The scientists who conducted the research clarified that data is preliminary, since they were collected from a sample of only eight volunteers, and they said they will now need to be confirmed by a larger investigation.

As reported by the Brazilian newspaper Stay, the study was carried out by scientists from the University of São Paulo and the State University of Campinas, known as UNICAMP. It was published on Monday in the “preprints” section (articles not yet reviewed by other scientists) of the scientific journal The Lancet.

The investigation

Scientists have collected plasma eight participants who had received the two doses of Coronavac vaccine about five months ago and tested the neutralizing activity of antibodies in plasma against Brazilian variant P.1 Yes against the most common strain in Brazil (the B) before the new one.

It was there that they observed that the level of antibodies capable of stopping the virus was lower for the P.1 variant than for the B strain, being below the detection limit in the test.

Scientists have noted, however, that this difference cannot be considered statistically significant because the sample of volunteers was small and the level of neutralization in both cases was “rather weak“.

Likewise, they indicated that “results suggest that P.1 (the Brazilian variant) may escape neutralizing antibodies induced by inactivated virus vaccine”Against Sars-CoV-2 (as is the case with Coronavac).

On the other hand, they said that the protection of Coronavac against severe cases of COVID-19 (seen in clinical studies) indicates that neutralizing antibodies are not the only protective factor against the disease and that the responses of other cells of our immune system, such as memory T or B lymphocytes, can reduce the severity of the disease even if there is such a reduction in antibody activity.

They suggest that in order to prevent transmission of the new strain, a booster dose may be needed vaccine, updated for this variant or for other variants presented.

Findings from two other studies

The Brazilian variant of COVID-19, dubbed P.1, could have a viral load up to ten times higher And it’s able to evade the immune system of those people who already had antibodies against the coronavirus, revealed two other preliminary studies carried out by Brazilian and English researchers.

“He’s probably doing all three at the same time: it is more transmissible, more invades the immune system and is likely to be more pathogenic“, He said on Monday in statements to the news agency EFE Ester Sabino, professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo (USP) and coordinator of the USP group which participated in research carried out by the Brazil-United Kingdom Center for the Discovery and Diagnosis of Abroviruses (CADDE).

This preliminary study, published last Friday, suggests that the new variant originating from the state of Amazonas is between 1.4 and 2.2 times more transmissible than the lines which precede it Y “Probably“Is one of the factors behind the second wave of the coronavirus in Brazil.

Scientists further concluded that the new strain is able to evade the immune system and cause a new infection in some of the individuals already infected with the coronavirus, more precisely between 25 and 61%.

“Few cases can be explained except loss of immunitySaid Sabino, who coordinated the study with researcher Nuno Faria, from the University of Oxford.

The preliminary study, based on a mathematical model carried out by Imperial College London, is based on the analysis of the genomes of 184 nasopharyngeal secretion samples from patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in a laboratory in Manaus between November 2020 and January 2021.

The state capital of Amazonas was the epicenter of the pandemic in Brazil in the first and second waves of the coronavirus and has seen a health collapse since late last year due to the explosion in coronavirus cases and income.

The research, which was supported by the Fundación de Amparo a las Investigaciones del Estado de San Pablo (Fapesp), has not yet been reviewed by other scientists or published in scientific journals.

Likewise, another study also published last Friday by researchers from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in the Amazon region indicates that the viral load in the body of individuals infected with P.1 can be up to ten times higher.

Brazil, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic in the world, has racked up 10,587,001 infections since it recorded the first case of the disease on February 26 last year and 255,720 deaths since the first victim was registered on February 12. March 2020.

Figures like this confirm the Latin American giant, with its 210 million inhabitants, as one of the global epicenters of COVID-19 and as the second country with the most deaths from the disease in the world, surpassed only by the United States, and as the third with more infections, behind the country of North America and India.

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