According to a study, the Povizer Covf-19 vaccine appears to work against the mutation in new coronavirus strains

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The two strains share a mutation known as N501Y that scientists worry could allow the virus to evade the immune protection generated by a vaccine.
In research published online Thursday, scientists found that the antibodies of people who had received the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine showed “no reduction in neutralizing activity” against a version of the virus carrying the N501Y mutation, which went create in the lab.

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

The N501Y mutation is found in the coronavirus ear protein, the same target structure as vaccines. The virus uses this protein to enter the cells it attacks.

The following explains how mutations can help the coronavirus bypass vaccines

This particular mutation appears to help the virus attach to human cells, which may partly explain why these new strains appear to be more transmissible. But it is just one of many mutations in both strains that scientists have been concerned about making 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 the full range of these mutations nor has it been peer-reviewed.

Although viruses are expected to mutate (often in neutral or even harmful ways for the virus), experts say the whole is not just the sum of the parts: some mutations are known to interact with each other, changing occasionally the shape or function of structures such as spike protein.

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

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

“We need to protect ourselves from new variants of participants in clinical trials that are still running to make sure the vaccine is equally effective,” explains Alexander Edwards, an associate professor of biomedical technology at the School of Pharmacy. the University of Reading in the UK said in a statement. Neither Edwards nor Dunn-Walters participated in the new investigation.

If a virus is more transmissible or less susceptible to a vaccine, experts say this could also raise the level of the number of people who should be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.

In a statement last month, Pfizer said it had performed tests similar to “multiple mutant strains. So far, we have found consistent coverage of all strains tested.”

The researchers wrote in the new paper that it will be important to continue “monitoring the importance of changes to vaccine coverage.”

This is due to the “possibility that a future mutation … may need a vaccine strain change.” Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use genetic technology that would allow them to adapt quickly to account for mutations, they noted.

In a statement Friday, BioNTech said Pfizer and Pfizer “are encouraged by these first in vitro study findings,” but stressed that “more data is needed” to track the vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing new diseases. variants.

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

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