LONDON (Reuters) – British researchers are to study doses of a combination of Pfizer and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine images in the world’s first trial aimed at finding new ways to quickly reduce coronavirus infections as new mutated changes emerge.
While thousands of individual mutations have emerged as the virus progresses with replication and evolves to new mutations, only a small minority are likely to be significant or altering the virus in a valuable way, according to the British Medical Journal.
Coronavirus changes that are currently causing concern for scientists and public health experts include the so-called British, South African and Brazilian versions, which appear to be spreading faster than others. .
British Vaccine Practice Minister Nadhim Zahawi said routine COVID-19 vaccines would continue to protect people from disease with the new variants, but this needs to be closely monitored.
“It is very likely that routine vaccinations will not be effective on the variables … especially when it comes to serious illness and hospitalization,” Zahawi told Sky News.
“All manufacturers, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca and others, are looking at how they can improve their vaccine to ensure we are ready for any variation – yes about 4,000 variables across the COVID world now. “
Ravi Gupta, a professor of microbiology at the University of Cambridge, said Zahawi had gone wrong, and was referring to individual mutations, not changes.
“The number of leaks has no real relevance because many mutations appear and disappear continuously,” Gupta said. “Scientists are using ‘variants’ to describe viruses with mutations that transmit in the general population – 4,000 of these do not exist.”
The so-called British version, called VUI-202012/01 or B.1.1.7., Has mutations, including a change in the spike protein that the coronavirus uses to bind to the human ACE2 receptor – means it is easier to capture.
“We make up around 50% of the world’s genome sequencing industry, and we maintain a library of different variables so that we are ready to respond – whether in the autumn or beyond – to any challenge that the virus may present and the next implementation of a vaccine, ”said Zahawi.
RACE VACCINE
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed 2.268 million people worldwide since it first appeared in China in late 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
Israel is currently far ahead of the rest of the world in vaccines per capita, followed by the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, the United States and then Spain, Italy. and Germany.
Britain on Thursday launched a test to assess the immune responses created if doses of the vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca are combined in a two-dimensional table. Initial data on immune responses are expected to be generated around June.
The lawsuit will examine the responses to an initial dose of Pfizer vaccine followed by an increase of AstraZeneca, as well as vice versa, with four- and 12-week intervals.
The lawsuit is the first of its kind to combine mRNA bullets – the one developed by Pfizer and BioNtech – and adenovirus vector vaccines of the type developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca’s unique bullet is being tested in conjunction with another viral vector vaccine, Sputnik V. of Russia.
The British researchers behind the case said that data on the vaccination of people with both types of vaccine could help to understand whether burns can be induced with greater flexibility, and even immunity. increase.
Matthew Snape, a vaccine from Oxford which is leading the trial, said a combination of different images had been effective in Ebola vaccine records, and while the new tests were a combination of vaccine technologies, it could also work.
“Ultimately, it all comes down to the same target – cells making the protein spike – just using different platforms,” he told reporters.
“For that reason we expect to create a good immune response with these combinations.”
The head of the Public Health England vaccine, Mary Ramsay, said there was much precedent for such work, as vaccines against Hepatitis A and B were intermittent from two different manufacturers, and work of the same type for human papillomavirus (HPV).
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Andy Bruce and Alistair Smout, edited by Estelle Shirbon and Nick Macfie