The South African Mutation Of Coronavirus Is Said To Be Able To Reduce Vaccine Protection

Vaccine illustration. (hakan nural / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The mutation of the coronavirus from South Africa is again attracting attention. This time, a laboratory study revealed that the mutation has the possibility to reduce the protection of the Pfizer BionNTech vaccine by two-thirds. And, it is unclear whether these vaccines will be effective against mutations or not.

The study found that the vaccine was still able to neutralize the virus. There has been no evidence from trials in people that this mutation reduces the protection of the vaccine.

However, Pfizer said it is investing and talking with regulators about developing an updated version of the mRNA vaccine or booster injection if needed.

For the study, scientists from the company and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) developed an engineered virus containing the same mutation that was carried in a variant of the virus in South Africa, known as B.1.351.

The researchers tested the engineered virus against blood drawn from people who had been given the vaccine and found a two-thirds reduction in levels of neutralizing antibodies, compared with their effect on the most common version of the virus prevalent in trials in the United States. Their findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Since there are no definite benchmarks yet to determine the level of antibodies needed to protect against the virus, it is unclear whether that two-thirds reduction will render the vaccine ineffective against variants spreading around the world.

However, UTMB Professor Pei Yong Shi said he believed the Pfizer vaccine would likely protect the variant.

“We don't know what the minimum neutralizing rate is. We don't have that limit. We suspect the observed immune response is likely to be significantly above that needed to provide protection", he explained.

In clinical trials, the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and a similar injection from Moderna Inc provided protection after a single dose with a lower antibody response, rather than the reduction in levels caused by the South African variant in laboratory studies.

According to Shi, if the associated variant significantly reduces efficacy, the vaccine still protects against serious illness and death. He called this the most important factor in maintaining a health care system.

"A lot of work needs to be done to understand whether the vaccine is working against the South African variant. Including clinical trials and development of protective chores, as benchmarks to determine what antibody levels are protective", he explained.

Pfizer and BioNTech say they are doing similar laboratory work to understand whether their vaccine is effective against another mutation first discovered in Brazil.