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The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine can neutralize mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 strain that have proliferated in the UK and South Africa, according to researchers in the medical branch of the University of Texas.
UTMB and pharmaceutical company Pfizer / BioNTech worked together on a new study, published Tuesday in the medical journal Nature Medicine.
The study used serum derived from 20 vaccines to test the effectiveness of the Pfizer formula on each known coronavirus variant, said Dr Pei-Yong Shi, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at UTMB. Another variant originating in Brazil is still under study.
The news comes a day after the University of Texas at Austin announced that the British strain had been detected on campus, and the Houston Methodist Hospital reported the first case of the South African variant from the Houston area.
More than 600 cases of the British strain have been reported in 33 states, while Texas is only the fourth state to confirm a case involving the South African variant, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
UTMB, through its year-old partnership with Pfizer, has developed a reverse genetic system that allows Sars-COV-2 to make and manipulate the virus in a petri dish in a lab, Shi said. With the system in place, the researchers were able to design and insert mutations into the virus to see how they proliferate inside its cells.
By visualizing how mutations infect the cell, the scientists were able to understand whether the mRNA vaccine would be effective against the British and South African variants, Shi said.
The vaccine appears to be more effective against the British variant than against the South African variant, although Shi said the difference was “very modest”.
Further studies of COVID variants are underway at Galveston Research Hospital, including the identification of common amino acid mutations. All of the new variants – regardless of their country of origin – contain the amino acid N501 at the peak protein level, according to Shi.
The first results will be available in the coming weeks.
The UTMB laboratories were used in phases 1, 2 and preclinical trials of the Pfizer vaccine. And Shi said the team was thrilled when the company was first approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration with 95% effectiveness.
The UTMB is collaborating on a number of studies with Pfizer / BioNTech, which are funded by the pharmaceutical company, grants from the National Institutes of Health, and various philanthropic donors.
“I thought we could take a break, but here are these new variations,” Shi said. “It put us in a chaotic new situation.”
Houston Methodist discovered the region’s first case of the South African variant on Feb.6 while genome sequencing positive test results. He also found two cases of the British variant in this sequence. The first case of the British variant in the Houston area was confirmed in early January.
While the vaccine will prevent a person from becoming very sick or dying from COVID-19, scientists still do not know if a vaccinated person will contract the virus, become asymptomatic and pass it on.
UTMB researchers are currently working to determine whether transmission is increased due to the mutations. However, being vaccinated will increase the body’s antibody activity regardless of the newer variants, Shi said.
“These are things we still don’t know,” he says. “This is why it is so important to get the vaccine because it will limit the transmission of the virus and minimize the chances of making other mutations. The more mutations it can cause, the more likely it is to erode the effectiveness of the current vaccine. “
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