Pfizer vaccine appears to be effective against rapidly spreading coronavirus variants

The coronavirus variants that have crossed the UK and South Africa over the past month are under intense scrutiny in labs around the world, as scientists try to determine how badly the strains transferred represent a threat. One of the main concerns is that new variants might be able to elude current vaccines, including the two developed by Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna currently being deployed in the United States.

A Reuters report on Thursday outlining a new study shows that Pfizer’s vaccine can effectively neutralize variants with a mutation known as N501Y, which has appeared in variants found in South Africa and the UK variant, known as the name of B.1.1.7, independently. The study has not yet been peer reviewed, but can be found on the preprinted bioRxiv repository.

“This is preliminary, but it definitely suggests that the vaccine will work against these variants as well,” says Larisa Labzin, an immunologist at the University of Queensland.

Coronaviruses are constantly mutating as they pass from human to human and, for the most part, do not significantly modify the virus. A handful of mutations, however, including those in the B.1.1.7 strain, appear to allow the virus to spread faster. These changes occur in the peak of the virus, an essential protein that allows the virus to enter and hijack human cells.

When the news in B.1.1.7 was more communicable for the first time, caution should be exercised. The new data was originally provided by Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a press conference in the UK on December 19. While scientists have signaled their concern, it was too early to say how the mutations could have changed the characteristics of the virus. Simply put, we needed more data.

Importantly, the new variant doesn’t appear to be more deadly, as Johnson noted in his presser. “There is no evidence that the variant causes more severe disease or higher mortality, but it appears to be transmitted much more easily,” he said. However, scientists were confused by the potential of the variant to elude our current vaccines.

They took antibodies from people who had been immunized with the vaccine and checked whether those antibodies could still stop the new variants, with a critical change in their spike protein.

But in the weeks that followed, the variant surfaced in many places around the world, including the United States and Australia, where it violated the hotel quarantine system and forced the city of Brisbane to a lockdown. immediate three days. The heightened concern has spread around the world and many countries have stepped up their border controls or closed them outright to British travelers.

To test the ability of current vaccines against the new variants, Pfizer used blood serum from 20 people who had received the vaccine. This serum contains antibodies against the vaccine and can be tested against viruses with different mutations in the laboratory. The intermediate results look good.

“So we tested 16 different mutations and none of them really had a significant impact. That’s the good news,” Phil Dormitzer, viral vaccine specialist at Pfizer, told Reuters.

“That doesn’t mean the 17th won’t be.”

It will be essential to test other aspects of the immune response, Labzin says, such as how specialized white blood cells respond to variant infection after vaccination. Other mutations in the variants will also be examined.

“There are more mutations in the spike protein than just the one they tested in this variant, but that’s definitely good news,” she says.

If the variants were to mutate in such a way that they start to decrease the effectiveness of current vaccines, we don’t have to go back to the drawing board. This is thanks to the “plug-n-play” nature of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. These vaccines use mRNA and can potentially be “re-encoded” within months to fight new variants. However, while technology allows it, this has never been tested before.

The information in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended for health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have about a medical condition or health goals.