New research suggests that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine may protect against a mutation found in two highly contagious coronavirus variants that broke out in Britain and South Africa.
These variants are causing global concern. Both share a common mutation called N501Y, a slight change in one point of the spike protein that lines the virus. This change is believed to be the reason why they can spread so easily.
Most vaccines launched around the world train the body to recognize this protein and fight it. Pfizer teamed with researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston for laboratory testing to see if the mutation affected its vaccine’s ability to do so.
They used blood samples from 20 people who received the vaccine, made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, during a large study of the vaccines. Antibodies from these vaccine recipients successfully defended the virus in laboratory plates, according to the study posted on Thursday night on an online website for researchers.
The study is preliminary and has not yet been reviewed by specialists, a fundamental step for medical research.
But “it was a very comforting discovery that at least this mutation, which was one that people are most concerned about, does not appear to be a problem” for the vaccine, said Pfizer’s scientific director, Dr. Philip Dormitzer.
Viruses constantly undergo small changes as they spread from person to person. Scientists have used these small modifications to track how the coronavirus has moved around the globe since it was first detected in China, about a year ago.
British scientists said the variant found in the UK – which has become the dominant type in parts of England – still appeared to be susceptible to vaccines. This mutant has now been found in the United States and several other countries.
But the variant first discovered in South Africa has an additional mutation that makes scientists nervous, a so-called E484K.
The Pfizer study found that the vaccine appeared to work against 15 possible additional virus mutations, but the E484K was not among those tested. Dormitzer said he is next on the list.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the United States’ leading infectious disease specialist, said recently that vaccines are designed to recognize various parts of the spike protein, making it unlikely that a single mutation will be sufficient to block them. But scientists around the world are conducting research on different vaccines to find out.
Dormitzer said that if the virus eventually mutates enough that the vaccine needs to be adjusted – just as flu vaccines are adjusted in most years – that adjusting the recipe would not be difficult for your company’s and similar vaccines. The vaccine is made with a piece of the virus’s genetic code, simple to change, although it is unclear what type of additional testing regulators would require to make such a change.
Dormitzer said this was just the beginning “of continuous monitoring of virus changes to see if any of them can impact vaccine coverage”.
____
The Associated Press Department of Health and Science receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.