Covid-19: People infected with 501Y.V2 may be protected from reinfection, scientists say

Scientists in South Africa have discovered the variant.

• The 501Y.V2 Covid-19 variant is capable of generating immune responses that neutralize itself and other lineages.
• Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande says this means that vaccines can now be developed that address the new variant.
• Nzimande said the scientists’ finding is important in the fight against Covid-19.

Scientists from South Africa have found that people infected with the Covid-19 501Y.V2 variant developed antibodies and may be protected from possible reinfection.

But they have cautioned that this does not mean that those who tested positive for the virus should not adhere to non-pharmaceutical protocols because the results were still being tested.

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Scientists, including Professor Tulio de Oliveira of the Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP), Koleka Mlisana, executive manager of the NHLS, and Penny Moore of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, presented that the new variant provides immune responses that protect people. from contracting other variants of the virus.

These findings were announced during a joint press conference held on Wednesday by the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Blade Nzimande, and the Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize.

The scientists found that plasma collected from people who were infected with the new variant had good neutralizing activity, also against “first wave” viruses and other possible variants.

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Among other factors, they found that a new variant with multiple spike mutations affected some responses to the vaccine and that people infected with the virus had immunity against the variant and other potential lineages.

The scientists presented that the findings were important to vaccine design and suggested that vaccines that were modified to contain the variant peak would likely protect against multiple variants.

They also announced that vaccine developers were testing second-generation antibodies.

Non-pharmaceutical protocols

Scientist Penny Moore said that despite the findings, it was important that people who were infected with the 501Y.V2 variant continue to adhere to prescribed non-pharmaceutical interventions.

“We have known for a long time that infected people develop good antibody responses, but there are many questions that we do not know. We do not know how long those antibodies last in people who have been infected.

“And we don’t know how much antibody is enough to protect you from reinfection. So while we assume that people who have been infected with the new variant are protected to some extent from reinfection, we don’t know how long that protection will last.” said Professor Moore.

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The scientists said the results should be received as good news as the country continues to face the Covid-19 challenge.

News24 reported last year that genomic scientists across the country, who analyzed genetic samples of the virus since the start of the pandemic, under the auspices of KRISP, discovered the 501Y.V2 variant.

The new variant, which has between 10 and 20 new mutations, was observed to spread rapidly since late September last year.

Oliveira said the new variant has many more mutations, even where they are not wanted.

“So 501Y.V2 has around nine mutations, these three being very important; 417, 484 and 501, because 501 has been associated with high transmission and 484 with a decrease in antibody neutralization …” Oliveira said. .

Oliveira said that Dr. Alex Sigal, in his research, noticed that in the 501Y.V2 variant, as more plasma was added from a previous infection, neutralization occurred.

Presenting the results, Sigal said they found that the new variant could neutralize itself.

Programs

“So if you have higher concentrations in your blood, therefore antibodies, you will not have viruses because these antibodies block you and as you go to lower concentrations, you get more and more virus,” he said.

“What surprised us is what happened to the first wave virus, so we use this plasma from people who were infected with 501Y.V2 in this last wave and we use it against the first wave virus, the earlier variant, and what he found could neutralize himself, “Sigal said.

Mkhize praised Nzimande’s department for supporting the work done by the researchers, adding that it was encouraging.

Mkhize said that the new discovery of the new variant was a huge boost in the scientific knowledge needed to control Covid-19. He added that this opened a conversation with the manufacturers of various vaccines, stating that they should also target 501Y.V2.

“Again we want to congratulate you on that, because this is the team that first showed us that the change in the second wave was driven by the dominance of this variant, 501Y.V2.

“We are going to approach the vaccination program with this knowledge in mind. We hope that this [information] that has been shown to actually help us as we move into the area of ​​surveillance genomics … ”