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Press Trust of IndiaFeb 18, 2021 11:29:07 AM IS
Preliminary research shows that the two COVID-19 vaccines approved in India are effective against the British variant of the new coronavirus, but there is no data on their efficacy against the South African and Brazilian mutants detected in the country. On Tuesday, the Health Ministry said four people were detected with the South African variant of SARS-CoV-2 and one tested positive for the Brazilian variant, a first for India, prompting scientists to emphasize the need for more. data and studies so that the country’s vaccine program can adapt to changing demands. The number of people who tested positive for the UK variant in the country rose to 187, authorities added.
The vaccines currently approved for emergency use in India are Covishield, from the Oxford-AstraZeneca stable manufactured by the Serum Institute of India in Pune, and Covaxin, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).
Answering the main question on many minds, researcher Deepak Sehgal said that it is difficult to say how effective the two will be against new emerging variants, particularly the South African and Brazilian ones unless scientists have studied them properly.
That being said, between the two vaccines currently in India, Covaxin may work better against new mutants because it generates protection against the entire virus. The Covishield vaccine targets a single protein in the virus, said Sehgal, head of the Department of Life Sciences at Shiv Nadar University, Uttar Pradesh. PTI.
Covaxin, he explained, can produce antibodies against many epitopes, or many regions of the whole virus, while Covishield produces antibodies only against a specific region of the virus.
So even if there is a mutation in one region, antibodies are being produced against other regions of the virus that will be effective in the case of Covaxin, he added.
Covaxin is an “inactivated” vaccine developed by chemically treating new coronavirus samples to render them unable to reproduce. This process leaves viral proteins intact, including the coronavirus spike protein that it uses to enter human cells.
Covishield contains a designed version of adenoviruses that infect chimpanzees to carry the gene responsible for the spike protein of the new coronavirus.
Adenoviruses are common viruses that generally cause mild colds or flu-like illnesses.
Both vaccines claim to have some efficacy against the UK variant.
According to a yet to be published study in 26 participants, Covaxin was found to be effective against the UK variant, Bharat Biotech said in late January.
Similarly, an Oxford University study found that the ChAdOx1-nCoV19 vaccine, known as Covishield in India, was effective in addressing the UK variant.
Immunologist Vineeta Bal pointed out that the UK variant had only one mutation that mattered and therefore these results were not surprising.
While the Bharat Biotech results were run on a small number of samples to verify inhibition against the UK virus in the current evolving situation, this can be taken as adequate preliminary data, said Bal from the Indian Institute of Education and Research. Pune Scientist (IISER).
However, both the South African and Brazilian variants have many more mutations, and thus a significant decrease in efficacy can be seen, he said.
We still do not have an answer on the effectiveness against the new variants. I am confident that efforts are underway to test sera (blood) from vaccinated individuals for their ability to block the growth of new variants in the tissue culture system, said Bal. PTI.
For that, the variant virus must be available and also the test installation. The NIV, for example, has the competence to do it and I’m sure they’re trying to prove it, she said, adding that no results are yet available in the public domain.
Globally, 10 COVID-19 vaccines have been approved by multiple countries or have limited emergency use.
New variants of coronavirus are emerging that are more infectious than the one that started the pandemic.
Scientific advisers to the UK government say the now prevalent variant of COVID-19 in the country may be 30-70% more “deadly” than previous variants, underscoring concerns about how mutations may change the characteristics of the disease.
A recent study suggests that the vaccine developed jointly by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German biotech company BioNTech can neutralize variants of the new coronavirus that were first reported in the UK and South Africa.
The research, published in the journal Nature Medicine, noted that the vaccine is effective against variants of the coronavirus that carry the N501Y and E484K mutations.
In January, the American biotech firm Moderna said lab studies showed its COVID-19 vaccine would continue to protect against variants of the coronavirus first identified in the UK and South Africa.
However, as a precaution, the company will test adding a second booster to its vaccine, for three injections in total, and has begun preclinical studies on a booster specifically for the South African variant.
In the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, messenger RNA, or mRNA, acts as a blueprint for the production of the coronavirus spike protein and is encapsulated by lipid molecules and delivered to human cells. MRNAs contain a blueprint for making proteins in cells
Rather than solid published data, it appears that the rapid spread of these emerging variants would reportedly pose some risk to people who have recovered from a previous infection, as well as those who are already vaccinated, Bal said.
In India, we do not know how effectively testing, detection and quarantine for contacts and cases are implemented.
Depending on that, the spread can be reduced with different efficiencies and hopefully no serious spread will occur and another round of lockdown will not be necessary, he added.
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