Professor Matthew Snape said alternating punctures could lead to additional protection against coronavirus
The coronavirus vaccines manufactured by Moderna and Novavax will be added to a “mix and match” trial, scientists said today.
Currently, the British medical regulator requires everyone to have two doses of the same carnation: AstraZeneca, Pfizer or Moderna.
But experts at Oxford University are testing whether alternating second doses could trigger a stronger immune response.
His trial, which could revolutionize UK deployment, was already evaluating the effects of the dose combination of AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
An additional 1,000 volunteers will now be recruited for the study to test combinations, including vaccines made by Moderna and Novavax.
Experts say the spike mixture is unlikely to pose any safety issues and predict it could cause the shots to be even more effective at preventing a virus infection.
Following fears of the AstraZeneca blood clot, France agreed to give recipients a second alternative dose. Germany made the same move for those under 60.
But until evidence is gathered they can’t say for sure if it works or if it’s safe.
Britain has only recommended that children under the age of 30 be offered an alternative and that anyone who has already had the first dose show up for the second, unless they have suffered the extremely rare complication.
The Oxford mix-and-match trial was first launched in February to investigate whether alternative doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines increased efficacy.
Volunteers must be over 50 years old and have received a dose of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine. Some will be offered the Modern or Novavax dose as a second dose, but others will be given the same dose the second time.
The study will be the first to show whether it is possible to mix doses of the Covid vaccine
Com-VOC assays, or the comparison of combinations of Covid vaccine programs, are the first in the world to examine the mixture of coronavirus strokes.
800 participants are already taking part, alternating AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.
But the new trial will recruit 175 more volunteers in each of the six arms, bringing the total number of volunteers to nearly 2,000.
Participants will be randomly assigned a Moderna or Novavax jab, which will be regulated by regulatory authorities in the coming weeks, as a second dose, eight weeks after receiving the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine.
Some participants will receive the same score they did the first time to act as a “control” of the study, to indicate whether alternative doses made the brushes more powerful.
The results will also be compared with the efficacy figures of each large-scale clinical trial stroke.
Experts will begin recruiting volunteers starting Monday, but final results are not expected until late next month and possibly July.
Its findings will be presented to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI), which will decide whether alternative doses are allowed.
The group of prominent scientists was also responsible for designing the jabs priority list and the decision to widen the gap between jabs to 12 weeks to protect as many people as possible.
The study will not include the Johnson and Johnson jab that is expected to be approved in days because it only requires one dose.
Professor Matthew Snape, who is leading the study, said he could offer ministers an alternative in case any puncture suffered supply restrictions or concerns about blood clots.
“The reason we are doing this study is that we are unaware of the effect of the mixture,” he said at a press conference.
“The risk with the mixture is that you will see suboptimal immune responses, or a response that is not as good as in the original vaccine course.
“Personally, I’d be surprised if that was the case. We just don’t know what the outcome will be.”
He said the sting mixture can make more participants immune to virus infections compared to current stings, as it can encourage the body to attack the whole virus instead of just the tip protein, which it uses to invade. the cells.
Studies have suggested that South African and Brazilian variants may partially elude prick-induced immunity because they have deformed peaks to which antibodies struggle to bind.
But if the immune system attacked the whole virus, these alterations would not help the virus to be detected undetected and cause an infection.
Experts believe that the current culture of spikes protects against the virus because antibodies are not the only part of the immune system.
The AstraZeneca vaccine was 76% effective in blocking symptomatic Covid infections in clinical trials, compared with 92% for Moderna and 95% for Pfizer.
But experts point out that these results are “very good” for any vaccine, adding that the World Health Organization only sets the bar at 50% and that annual flu shots are usually effective at around 40%.
The AstraZeneca and Novavax vaccine uses a cold-modified virus that contains Covid spike proteins to teach the immune system how to fight the disease.
While the Pfizer and Moderna punch uses mRNA – instructions to build proteins – to trigger the production of the ear particle.
It comes after more than 800 people were enrolled in tests to find out if it was possible to “mix and match” between the AstraZeneca and Pfizer strikes.
All participants are over 50 years old and were beaten at eight locations across England, including London, Birmingham and Liverpool.
The study will run for 13 months, with patients recruited in February.