A variant of coronavirus identified in South Africa may not be as vulnerable to COVID-19 vaccines as other strains, some scientists say.
Studies are now underway to find out if this is actually the case.
If the variant, known as 501.V2, is resistant to available vaccines, the photos could be modified to increase their effectiveness – adjustments that would take about six weeks to make, vaccine developers told Reuters.
These developers included BioNTech CEO Dr. Uğur Shahin and John Bell, a Regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, who are currently conducting experiments with both 501.V2 and the new coronavirus variant identified in the Sea. United Kingdom, called B.1.1.7.
These experiments are so-called neutralizing tests – experiments in which viruses are incubated with antibodies and human cells to see if antibodies prevent infection, reported The Associated Press (AP).
They perform blood tests on vaccinated people and those who caught the virus and developed antibodies naturally, Dr. Richard Lessells, an infectious disease expert working on genomic studies in South Africa about 501, told AP. .V2.
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In general, it is not surprising that variants such as 501.V2 and B.1.1.7 have appeared; all viruses detect mutations as they make copies of themselves, and the new coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 is no exception.
However, while the two recently identified variants share some similar mutations, 501.V2 “has a number of additional mutations … which are worrisome,” Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University, told Reuters. from Reading.
Specifically, the variant found in South Africa has more mutations in its peak protein – which emerges from the surface of the virus and is used to invade human cells – than B.1.1.7, Lawrence Young, virologist and professor of molecular oncology at The University of Warwick told Reuters.
Most available vaccines train the immune system to recognize this spike protein. If the spike protein accumulates too many mutations, it can become unrecognizable to the immune system, allowing the virus to avoid detection in the body; this is the potential concern with the new 501.V2 variant, Young said.
That being said, neutralization tests should soon reveal whether or not we need to worry. So far, Public Health England, an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care, has said there is currently no evidence to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines will not protect against both B.1.1.7 and 501. V2, Reuters reported.
In addition, several experts said New York Times that it would probably take years, not months, for the coronavirus to move enough to fool the available vaccines.
“It will be a process that has been going on for many years and requires the accumulation of multiple viral mutations,” said Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. time.
“It will not be like a on-off switch,” in terms of how quickly the new variants become resistant to current vaccines, he said.
In other words, vaccines may gradually become less effective over time than not working suddenly.
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This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.