The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine may neutralize mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 strain that proliferated in the United Kingdom and South Africa, according to researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
UTMB and pharmaceutical company Pfizer / BioNTech worked together on a new study, published Tuesday in the medical journal Nature Medicine.
The study used serum derived from 20 vaccinees to test the effectiveness of Pfizer’s formula on each known variant of the coronavirus, said Dr. Pei-Yong Shi, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at UTMB. Another variant that originated in Brazil is still under study.
The news comes a day after the University of Texas at Austin announced that the UK strain was detected on campus, and the Houston Methodist Hospital reported the first case of the South African variant in the Houston area.
More than 600 cases of the UK strain have been reported in 33 states, while Texas becomes only the fourth state to confirm a case involving the South African variant, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
UTMB, through its one-year partnership with Pfizer, developed a reverse genetics system for Sars-COV-2 to produce and manipulate the virus in a Petri dish in a laboratory setting, said Shi. Once the system was in place, the researchers were able to design and insert mutations into the virus to see how they proliferate within their cells.
By visualizing how the mutations infect the cell, scientists were able to understand whether the mRNA vaccine would be effective against variants in the United Kingdom and South Africa, said Shi.
The vaccine appears to be more effective against the UK variant than against the South African, although Shi said the difference was “very modest”.
Further studies of COVID variants are underway at the Galveston research hospital, including the identification of common amino acid mutations. All new variants – regardless of country of origin – contain the amino acid N501 in the peak protein, according to Shi.
The first results will be available in the coming weeks.
UTMB laboratories were used in Phase 1, 2 and preclinical tests for the Pfizer vaccine. And Shi said the team was thrilled when the company passed the Food and Drug Administration with 95 percent effectiveness.
UTMB is collaborating on a series of studies with Pfizer / BioNTech, which are funded by the pharmaceutical company, grants from the National Institutes of Health and several philanthropic donors.
“I thought we could take a break, but here are these new variants,” said Shi. “It threw us into a new chaotic situation.”
Houston Methodist discovered the first case of the South African variant in the region on February 6, while sequencing the genomes of positive test results. He also found two cases of the UK variant in that sequence. The first UK variant case in the Houston area was confirmed in early January.
Although the vaccine prevents a person from becoming very ill or dying from COVID-19, scientists are still unsure whether a vaccinated person will contract the virus, become asymptomatic and pass it on.
The UTMB researchers are now working to determine whether transmission increases as a result of the mutations. However, vaccination will increase the body’s antibody activity, regardless of new variants, said Shi.
“Those are the things we don’t know yet,” he said. “This is why vaccination is so important, because it will limit the transmission of the virus and minimize the chance of making more mutations. The more mutations it can make, the greater the chance of eroding the effectiveness of the current vaccine. “
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