Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine works against mutations found in UK and South African variants, according to a laboratory study

Researchers have been competing to assess whether vaccines and drugs against Covid-19 will still work against new variants, as governments launch shots hoping they can reopen schools, businesses and other establishments.

Pfizer’s findings are consistent with other preliminary results reported in recent weeks by several research groups studying the effectiveness of available vaccines against new variants.

The investigation is still preliminary. The Pfizer study was conducted in a laboratory and tested only a subset of mutations that were found in the variants, but not in the variants themselves. In addition, the researchers did not assess whether their results were statistically significant.

However, these and other results suggest that the impact of the variants on prey will be “relatively modest, which is good news for vaccines,” said Jason McLellan, a structural biologist at the University of Texas at Austin. who has studied how coronavirus proteins interact with antibodies and is not involved in the Pfizer study.

Pfizer said the “findings do not indicate the need for a new vaccine to address emerging variants.” The company said, however, that she and her partner BioNTech SE BNTX -0.30%

were prepared to respond to a vaccine-resistant version of the virus.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine uses a new technology called messenger RNA, according to the molecular messengers of the genetic instructions, which allows developers to make faster changes to their vaccines than more traditional techniques. The other vaccine authorized in the US, Modern Biotechnology Inc.,

also uses mRNA technology.

A recent preliminary study by Moderna, in collaboration with scientists from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, showed that the antibodies generated by its vaccine were less effective at binding mutated ear proteins of the South African variant. The researchers found no difference for the peak proteins of the British variant. The coronavirus uses its peak proteins, which study its surface, to enter and infect cells. Proteins are key targets of antibodies.

As a precaution, the company said it was developing a booster shot for the South African variant.

The new Pfizer study found that the antibodies generated by its vaccine were slightly better in the binding versions of the virus that featured some of the mutations found in the UK variant.

This could be because scientists tested their viruses similar to UK variants against a variant that did not have an older but key mutation, which increases transmissibility but makes the virus more susceptible to antibodies, he said. say Dr. McLellan.

The gold standard would be to test antibodies against the variants themselves, he and others said, to understand how their single constellation of mutations could affect natural immunity or protection against a vaccine.

These studies are underway in laboratories around the world.

Pfizer researchers, who worked with scientists in the medical branch of the University of Texas, did not perform tests of statistical significance, a key way in which scientists assess whether their results are due to chance and have importance in the real world, another major limitation, scientists are not involved in the study said.

Rafael Casellas, an NIH molecular immunologist, said it was important to continue monitoring the evolution of the coronavirus to assess whether vaccines and other therapies will need to be updated or whether booster vaccines will be needed. “We can’t take this virus lightly,” he said. “We just don’t have enough information, so we have to be careful.”

Write to Daniela Hernandez at [email protected]