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- Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s COVID-19 injections were at least 10 times less effective against a variant coronavirus in a new study.
- Researchers tested the vaccines on the variant first found in South Africa, which is now found in 20 US states.
- A mutation on the variant called E484K appears to be a “major contributor,” the study authors said.
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Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccines appear to be significantly less effective against the coronavirus variant first discovered in South Africa, a lab study has suggested.
The percentage of protective antibodies that neutralized the variant – called B.1.351, which has been recorded in 20 US states – was 12.4 times lower for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine than against the original coronavirus, and 10.3 times lower for Pfizer, the study authors. mentionned.
This was a larger drop than in previous lab studies testing vaccines against manufactured forms of the variant, they said. For this study, the researchers used actual forms of the variant taken from people who had caught the virus.
Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been approved for emergency use in the United States.
B.1.351 was first detected in South Africa in October 2020. It has since spread to 42 countries, including the United States, where it circulates in at least 20 states, including California and Texas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. There are 81 reported cases of B.1.351 in the United States overall, the CDC said.
The researchers found that the antibody activity of the two vaccines was “essentially unchanged” against the variant first found in the UK, B.1.1.7. There are 3,037 reported cases in the United States of B.1.1.7, according to the CDC, and experts believe it will soon become the dominant strain in the United States.
Scientists at Columbia University also tested for viruses made in the lab that had certain mutations. They said that a specific mutation, E484K, appeared to be a “major contributor” to the ability of the B.1.351 variant to escape the antibody response. E484K is generally not present in B.1.1.7, the variant first found in the UK.
The study has been accepted by the scientific journal Nature but not yet published.
Real-world sample collection
In the experiment, scientists took 10 blood samples from people who had received two doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, 28 days after their second dose, and 12 samples from those who had received two doses of Moderna’s vaccine, 43 days after. their second dose. They then compared the ability of antibodies present in blood samples to “neutralize” the original coronavirus, compared to the actual variants of coronavirus B.1.1.7 and B.1.351.
The sample size was small and the antibody response is only one aspect of the immune response, so it is still unclear to what extent the vaccines work against the variant first found in Africa. South in real life.
Pfizer has previously performed Petri dish tests that showed a less potent antibody response against a lab-made coronavirus variant that mimicked the variant first found in South Africa. It was not the exact B.1.351 variant.
Moderna performed similar tests and said their vaccine was resistant to mutations found in B.1.1.7, the variant first found in the UK, but worse against mutations found in B.1.351, the variant identified for the first time in the South. Africa. Again, he used laboratory-made variants.
Both companies said in January that they were developing booster shots specifically to combat variant B.1.351.
None of the vaccines have been properly tested against the variant first found in South Africa in the real world.
In Israel, Pfizer’s vaccine has been shown to be very effective against variant B.1.1.7, first found in the UK. About 80% of Israelis with COVID-19 are infected with B.1.1.7.
Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine was less effective in clinical trials that took place in South Africa.
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