Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines are less effective against the variants. Study in Nature
What emerges from a study on Pfizer and Moderna vaccines published in the journal Nature
Pfizer-Biontech and Moderna vaccines stimulate an identical immune response in the patients they have been administered to, but are less effective, equally, against the English, South African and Brazilian variants of Covid-19. This is demonstrated by a study, published in Nature, conducted on 20 volunteers.
All the details.
REDUCED ACTIVITY AGAINST VARIATIONS
"The activity against SARS-CoV-2 variants encoding E484K or N501Y or the combination K417N: E484K: N501Y has been reduced by a small but significant margin", explain the authors of the Nature publication. Agi agency.
The N501Y variant is a prevalent mutation in the UK and South Africa, while the E484K is the Brazilian one.
I STUDY
To assess the immune response – the response of antibodies and memory B cells – to variants from Covid-19, researchers led by Michel Nussenzweig of Rockefeller University in New York analyzed blood samples from 20 individuals they received. two doses of Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine (14 people) or Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine (6 people).
THE RESULTS
Vaccines, experts explain, induced a similar immune response. “At eight weeks after the second vaccine injection, the volunteers showed elevated levels of IgM and binding titers of the anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG spike protein (S) and receptor binding domain (RBD). Experts found that the vaccines led to the production of neutralizing antibodies, and that they targeted the same epitopes on the SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain as those produced after natural infection. The scholars also observed that individuals immunized with one of the two vaccines produced closely related and nearly identical antibodies. "
Weak response
However, the authors add, "neutralization by 14 of the 17 most potent mAbs tested was reduced or abolished by the K417N, E484K or N501Y mutations".
To evaluate whether these vaccines induce neutralizing antibodies against other epitopes not found in the binding domain of the receptor, argue the authors, who underline in the publication in Nature that "it may be necessary to update vaccines and monitor immunity to compensate for the evolution of the virus ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/i-vaccini-di-pfizer-e-moderna-sono-meno-efficaci-contro-le-varianti/ on Wed, 10 Feb 2021 15:16:14 +0000.