One of the main concerns among experts is the coronavirus variants that have been identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa since last month. Laboratories around the world are trying to understand how big a threat the mutated strains could pose.
One of the possibilities being considered is whether the new strains may not be covered by current vaccines, including the two developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna that are currently circulating in the US.
Reuters Thursday that a new study showed that Pfizer's vaccine can effectively neutralize coronavirus mutations such as those identified in South Africa (N501Y) and the United Kingdom (B.1.1.7). Although the study has not yet been peer-reviewed ,it has been published on bioRxiv.
“It’s still early, but certainly the study suggests that the vaccine will work against these variants,” said Larisa Labzin, an immunologist at the University of Queensland.
The coronavirus mutates as it spreads from person to person, but it doesn't change much. However, the mutation in strain B.1.1.7 appears to allow the virus to spread more quickly. These changes occur in a critical protein in the virus that allows it to enter and infect human cells.
Most importantly, of course, the new variant does not appear to be more deadly.
People who have been vaccinated have already given samples for scientists to test whether the antibodies they have developed can stop the new variants.
To test the ability of current vaccines against the new variants, Pfizer used blood serum from 20 people who had received the vaccine. This serum contains antibodies to the vaccine and can be tested against viruses with different mutations in the laboratory.
“We tested 16 different mutations and none of them really had a significant impact. That’s the good news,” Phil Dormitzer, a vaccine scientist at Pfizer, told Reuters.
Of course, it's critical to test other aspects of the immune response, Labzin said, such as how specialized white blood cells respond to a variant infection after vaccination. Other mutations in the variants will also be examined.
"There are more mutations in the protein than were tested in this study, but the news is certainly positive," he said.
If coronavirus variants were to mutate in a way that would reduce the effectiveness of current vaccines, there is an alternative plan. Thanks to the “plug-n-play” nature of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which use mRNA, they could potentially be “coded” within months to combat the new variants.
