Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine works against mutations found in the UK, South Africa variants, laboratory study results

Researchers are rushing to assess whether Covid-19 vaccines and drugs will still work against the new variants, as governments implement measures that hope to allow schools, businesses and other establishments to reopen.

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

The research is still preliminary, however. The Pfizer study was conducted in a laboratory and tested only a subset of mutations 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 variants on injections will be “relatively modest, which is good news for vaccines,” said Jason McLellan, a structural biologist at the University of Texas at Austin who studied how coronavirus proteins interact with the antibodies and was not involved in the Pfizer study.

Pfizer said that “the findings do not indicate the need for a new vaccine to deal with emerging variants”. The company stated, however, that it and 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, named after the molecular messengers of genetic instructions, which allows developers to make faster changes to their vaccines than more traditional techniques. The other vaccine authorized in the USA, from modern biotechnology Inc.,

also uses mRNA technology.

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

As a precaution, the company said it is developing a reinforcement injection for the South African variant.

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

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

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

These studies are ongoing in laboratories around the world.

Pfizer researchers, who worked with scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch, did not perform tests of statistical significance, an important way for scientists to assess whether their results are due to chance and are important in the real world, another important limitation, scientists do not involved in the study said.

Rafael Casellas, a molecular immunologist at the NIH, said it is important to continue monitoring the evolution of the coronavirus to assess whether vaccines and other therapies will need to be updated or whether booster doses are needed. “We cannot handle this virus lightly,” he said. “We just don’t have enough information, so we need to be cautious.”

Write to Daniela Hernandez at [email protected]