Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine appears to work against mutation in new coronavirus strains, study finds

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The two strains share a mutation known as N501Y that scientists believe could allow the virus to escape the immune protection generated by a vaccine.
In research published online Thursday, scientists found that the antibodies of people who received the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine showed “no reduction in neutralizing activity” against a version of the virus that carries the N501Y mutation, which they created in the laboratory.

To do this, the researchers tested the virus against the blood of 20 people who had received two doses of the vaccine in a clinical trial.

The N501Y mutation is localized in the coronavirus spike protein – the same structure targeted by vaccines. The virus uses this protein to enter the cells it attacks.

Here's how mutations could help coronavirus escape vaccines

This particular mutation appears to help the virus attach to human cells, which may partly explain why these newer strains seem more transmissible. But that’s just one of many mutations in the two strains that scientists say could make the virus less susceptible to vaccines or treatments.

The study – conducted by researchers at Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch – does not test for the full range of these mutations and has not been peer reviewed.

While viruses are believed to mutate – often in a neutral or even harmful way for the virus – experts say the whole is not just the sum of the parts: some mutations are known to interact with each other, sometimes altering the pattern. form or function of structures like the spike protein.

“One limitation of this study is that the mutation was tested in isolation,” Deborah Dunn-Walters, chair of the British Society for Immunology working group on Covid-19 and Immunology, said in a statement. She noted that mutations which may have a compound effect “should be tested together”.

Because people typically make more than one type of antibody against a virus, experts say that such a mutation is unlikely to make the virus completely resistant to a vaccine. However, experts are not sure that the new strains will have any impact.

“We will need to see real protection against the new variants in participants in clinical trials that are still ongoing to be sure the vaccine is also effective,” Alexander Edwards, associate professor of biomedical technology at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Reading in UK, said in a statement. Neither Edwards nor Dunn-Walters were involved in the new research.

If a virus is more transmissible or less sensitive to a vaccine, experts believe it could also raise the bar for the number of people who would need to be vaccinated to gain herd immunity.

In a statement last month, Pfizer said it performed similar tests on “several mutant strains. To date, we have found consistent coverage of all strains tested.”

It will be important to continue to “monitor the significance of changes for immunization coverage,” the researchers wrote in the new document.

This is because of “the possibility that a future mutation … may require a change in vaccine strain.” The vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna use genetic technology that would allow vaccines to be quickly adapted to accommodate mutations, they noted.

In a statement Friday, BioNTech said he and Pfizer “are encouraged by these early results from in vitro studies,” but stressed that “more data is needed” to monitor the vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing disease caused by new variants.

CNN’s Jacqueline Howard and Maggie Fox contributed to this report.

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