NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pfizer Inc and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine appears to be working against a key mutation in the new highly transmissible variants of coronavirus found in the UK and South Africa, according to a US doctor’s laboratory study.
The study, which has not yet been evaluated by colleagues by Pfizer and scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch, indicated that the vaccine was effective in neutralizing the virus with the so-called N501Y mutation of the spike protein.
The mutation could be responsible for increased transmissibility and there were concerns that it could cause the virus to escape antibody-induced neutralization by the vaccine, said Phil Dormitzer, one of the top scientists in the Pfizer viral vaccine.
The study was performed on blood taken from people who received the vaccine. Its findings are limited because it does not look at the full set of mutations found in any of the new variants of the rapidly spreading virus.
Dormitzer said it is encouraging that the vaccine seems effective against the mutation, as well as 15 other mutations that the company has previously tested.
“So we tested 16 different mutations now and none of them had a significant impact. This is good news, “he said. “That doesn’t mean the 17th won’t do it.”
Dormitzer noted that another mutation found in the South African version, called the E484K mutation, is also worrying.
The researchers plan to conduct similar tests to see if the vaccine is effective against other mutations found in variants in the UK and South Africa and hope to have more data in a few weeks.
Scientists have expressed concern that the vaccines launched may not be able to protect against new variants, especially those that have appeared in South Africa.
Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cell microbiology at the University of Reading, said this week that while both variants have some new features in common, the one found in South Africa “has a number of additional mutations” that included more extensive peak changes. protein.
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and the one from Moderna Inc., which uses synthetic RNA messenger technology, can be quickly modified to address new mutations in a virus, if necessary. Scientists have suggested that the changes could be made in just six weeks.
Reporting by Michael Erman; Edited by Bill Berkrot and Edwina Gibbs