A variant of the coronavirus first detected in Brazil poses a lesser threat to vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Pfizer than the researchers were concerned, according to new findings announced Thursday by the University of Oxford.
“The results suggest that P1 [the Brazil variant] may be less resistant to the vaccine and convalescent immune responses than B1351, and similar to B117, “said Professor Gavin Screaton, the study’s lead scientist, partly in a statement published Thursday by the University of Oxford.
A large team of researchers affiliated with Oxford University posted the results this week before the peer review on the bioRxiv server. The University of Oxford developed one of the vaccines under study in collaboration with AstraZeneca, which left several countries, mainly European, staggering last week, ordering temporary suspensions of AstraZeneca vaccines amid reports of blood clotting. The European regulator, the European Medicines Agency, convened a safety committee on Thursday to discuss the data and plans to report any action taken, if necessary.
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In the preliminary study at hand, the researchers noted that the variants in Brazil (P.1), South Africa (B.1.351) and the United Kingdom share mutations at the site of virus binding, and suggested mutations located elsewhere may be responsible for the different impacts on the neutralizing power.
“We showed that, surprisingly, P.1 is significantly less resistant to antibody responses naturally acquired or induced by vaccine than B.1.351, suggesting that changes outside the RBD [receptor binding domain] impact neutralization, “wrote the study authors.
The researchers analyzed more than 30 blood samples from previously infected individuals and 50 other blood samples from those vaccinated with the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines.
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The results indicated that the strains in Brazil and the United Kingdom had a similar reduction of approximately three times in the neutralization power for the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. The South African variant, in comparison, had a much greater impact, resulting in a 7.6 and 9-fold reduction in the neutralizing power of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines, respectively.
With regard to the protection of natural origin against previous infection, strains from Brazil and the United Kingdom again resulted in an approximate three-fold reduction, compared to a 13.3-fold drop inflicted by the South African variant.
“These data suggest that vaccine-induced and natural antibodies may still neutralize these variants, but at lower levels,” the statement said.
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Separate studies previously suggested that the South African variant decreased the neutralizing power of the Pfizer vaccine by about two-thirds, while Moderna saw a six-fold reduction in neutralizing antibodies.
“These additional efforts to investigate the relationship between changes in the virus and human immunity provide new insights that help us to be prepared to respond to new challenges to our health caused by the pandemic virus, if necessary,” Professor Andrew Pollard, chief researcher at the Oxford University vaccine trial, said in the statement.