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Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is effective against a key mutation found in variants of the virus that spread faster than the original strain, according to a preliminary study.
While viruses mutate all the time, scientists worry that some of the new mutations in the new coronavirus, specifically those in a new variant discovered in South Africa, could make vaccines less effective. Live Science previously reported. The South African variant, known as 501.V2, as well as another variant discovered in the UK known as B.1.1.7, appear to spread more easily than the parent virus, probably because they both have some of the same mutations in the protein of SARS-CoV-2 spike, the weapon the virus uses to invade human cells.
Scientists are now working to understand how these mutations could affect the effectiveness of Vaccines for COVID-19. A group of researchers from Pfizer and the University of Texas Galveston medical branch generated a version of the coronavirus that included a mutation called N501Y, which is present in the spike protein of both variants found in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
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This mutation is of “particular concern” because it is found at the spike protein binding site and is known to increase the virus’s ability to bind to human cells, the authors wrote in the study, which was published on 7. January to the prepress database bioRxiv, and has not yet been peer reviewed.
To find out how the mutation can affect vaccines, the researchers compared how a virus with this new mutation behaved against the vaccine, compared to an earlier version of the virus that did not carry this mutation. To do this, they tested whether the viruses were neutralized in blood samples taken from 20 people who had previously been vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine; Because these people had been vaccinated, their blood samples contained molecules that could fight the virus, including so-called neutralizing antibodies that prevent the coronavirus from entering cells in the first place.
“There was no reduction in neutralizing activity against the virus carrying the new mutation,” the researchers wrote in the study. However, a “limitation” of the study is that the researchers did not test a variant that included all the mutations found in the spike proteins of fast-spreading strains in the UK and South Africa, they wrote.
But researchers are investigating these other mutations in additional studies, Phil Dormitzer, Pfizer vice president and chief scientist for viral vaccines, told STAT. Moderna and AstraZeneca are also conducting similar experiments, according to The Associated Press.
Because the SARS-CoV-2 virus, like other viruses, will continue to evolve, it is important to continuously monitor them for mutations that could affect the effectiveness of the vaccine and to be prepared for the possibility of a future mutation that would require changes in the vaccinations the researchers wrote.
“This update of the vaccine would be facilitated by the flexibility of mRNA-based vaccine technology“they added.
In other words, since both Pfizer and Moderna created mRNA-based vaccines, the researchers would only need to swap the genetic code they used to encode the spike protein in those vaccines with a new version that includes the new mutations. Live Science previously reported. “These data do not suggest the need for a change, but the mutations are coming close enough that we have to be prepared,” Dormitzer told STAT.
Originally posted on Live Science.
