The emergence of more infectious variants of Wuhan pneumonia (novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19) in the United Kingdom and South Africa has raised questions about the efficacy of existing vaccines. However, a preliminary study by the University of Texas Medical School and Pfizer found that a vaccine developed by Pfizer and German biotech company BioNTech appears to still be able to defend against the variant virus.
Reuters and Bloomberg reported on the 8th that a study conducted by the University of Texas Medical School and supported by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals took and tested the blood of 20 people who had received the Pfizer vaccine and found that the vaccine could still effectively neutralize mutated viruses with the spike protein (N501Y mutation). The Pfizer vaccine uses mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) technology to inject a small portion of the viral genetic code into the body to train the immune system to fight infection.
Phil Dormitzer, Pfizer’s chief viral vaccine scientist, pointed out that the N501Y mutation, which is common in both the UK and South African variants of the virus, may be the main cause of the virus’ greater infectivity, but the drug company, along with this experiment, has tested 16 mutations of the virus, all of which have no significant impact on the Pfizer vaccine, “which is good news! but does not mean that the 17th mutation will not have a serious impact.”
Domitzer also warned that the E484K mutation, found in the South African variant of the strain, is equally worrisome, and similar testing will continue over several weeks to see how the Pfizer vaccine responds to the variant.
The study was published on BioRxiv, a repository of pre-printed biology papers, on the 8th, but the analysis notes that it is not yet entirely certain that the vaccine is still effective against the variant virus, as it has not been reviewed by peer experts and does not cover all known mutations in the variant virus.
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