Some scientists say a variant of the coronavirus identified in South Africa may not be as vulnerable to COVID-19 vaccines as other strains.
Studies are now being conducted to find out if this is really the case.
If the variant, known as 501.V2, is resistant to available vaccines, the features could be modified to increase its effectiveness, adjustments that would take about six weeks to make, the vaccine developers told Reuters.
These developers included BioNTech CEO Dr Uğur Şahin and John Bell, a Regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, who are currently conducting experiments with 501.V2 and the new coronavirus variant identified in the UK, called B.1.1.7.
These experiments are the so-called neutralizing assays: experiments in which viruses are incubated with antibodies and human cells, to see if the antibodies prevent infection, as reported by The Associated Press (AP).
They are conducting blood tests on vaccinated people and people who have detected the virus and developed antibodies naturally, Dr. Richard Lessells, an infectious disease expert who works in Southern genomic studies, told the AP -Africa 501.V2.
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In general, it is not surprising that variants such as 501.V2 and B.1.1.7 have appeared; all viruses detect mutations while making copies of themselves, and the new coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 is no exception.
However, while the two recently identified variants share some similar mutations, and 501.V2 “has several additional mutations … that are worrisome,” Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cell microbiology at the University, told Reuters of Reading.
Specifically, the variant found in South Africa has more mutations in its ear protein – which protrudes from the surface of the virus and is used to invade human cells – than the one that makes B.1.1.7, Lawrence Young , a virologist and professor of molecular oncology at The University of Warwick, told Reuters.
Most available vaccines train the immune system to recognize this ear protein. If the ear protein accumulates too many mutations, it may be unrecognizable by the immune system, allowing the virus to prevent its detection in the body; That’s the potential concern with the new 501.V2 variant, Young said.
That said, neutralizing tests should soon reveal whether we should worry or not. As of now, Public Health England, an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care, said there is currently no evidence to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines do not protect against both B.1.1.7 and 501.V2 , Reuters reported.
In addition, several experts said The New York Times that it would probably take years, not months, for the coronavirus to mutate enough to circumvent the available vaccines.
“It will be a process that occurs over several years and requires the accumulation of multiple viral mutations,” said Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. The times.
“It won’t be like an on-off switch,” in terms of how quickly new variants become resistant to current vaccines, he said.
In other words, vaccines may gradually become less effective over time, rather than not working suddenly.
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This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.