The impact of the new variant on vaccines may soon become apparent
Travel bans and other lightning defenses countries have taken against omicrons, the new Covid-19 variant, are buying time for scientists to answer key questions that could be prevented. another wave of deaths.
Labs in Europe, the US and Africa are preparing for trials to see how the new variant is likely to work in previously vaccinated or infected people. Real-world research will also be important, as health authorities closely monitor the outbreak in South Africa to learn how contagious the new variant is as it spreads and whether it is more deadly. or lethal or not.
Scientists and policymakers say the questions will take weeks to answer. The search for understanding began with a variant model of 50 mutations, more than 30 of which were in the virus’s mutant protein, which is the weapon that Covid-19 uses to invade our cells. victim. It will continue through laboratory work and eventually observations of disease and transmission patterns in real life.
Wendy Barclay, head of the department of infectious diseases at Imperial College, London, said:
“Taken together on paper, it’s biologically plausible that this virus has increased transmissibility,” Barclay said at a news conference on Friday. The researchers must apply the knowledge they’ve gained in more than a year of studying the virus, she said. “That’s where you start, and then you try and back that kind of approach by looking at epidemiology and lab-based studies.”
Wily virus
A virus’s first job is to survive in its host, and nature has programmed them to change shape. SARS-CoV-2 has mutated and changed since it was first identified, with the first variant of interest – alpha – being designated in December 2020. Omicron, formerly known as B.1.1 .529, is the fifth variant of interest named by the World Health Organization.
However, Omicron may have a growth advantage over others, as it is found at a faster rate than in previous spikes, the WHO said on Friday. The WHO says it may also pose a higher risk of reinfection than other variants of interest.
There are hints of the spread of omicrons in South Africa, said Sharon Peacock, professor of public health and microbiology at the University of Cambridge and head of the Covid-19 Genomics UK consortium. “When the Department of Health saw the numbers double every day, the question they asked was ‘Well, where are these cases coming from?'”
Jeffrey Barrett, director of Covid-19 Genomics, said those questions and rapid surveillance by South Africa and its neighbors may have put the rest of the world in a position where more time is needed as the crisis unfolds. delta bodies are emerging in India, said Jeffrey Barrett, director of Covid-19 Genomics Initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in the UK.
“They figured this out, understood it was a problem, and told the world extremely quickly,” Barrett said. “It took many, many weeks after India’s extremely terrible wave before it became clear what was going on, and by that time the plains were already self-seeding in many parts of the world.”
Sprint knowledge
The impact of the new variant on vaccines may soon become apparent. BioNTech SE, which works with Pfizer Inc. about the world’s best-selling Covid vaccine, said it is starting laboratory studies of the variant and will have the first data on how it interacts with the vaccine within two weeks.
BioNTech and Pfizer have long promised that they will be able to roll out a new version of the vaccine within 100 days if needed.
Moderna Inc. are also studying how well their current booster vaccine dose neutralizes omicrons, with data likely to follow in the coming weeks. The company said Friday that it is also working on a high-dose version of the booster, a new multivalent enhancer, and a new booster specifically for omicrons. Moderna says it can usually put a new experimental vaccine to the test within 60 to 90 days.
The mutations could also help omicrons rule out antibody treatments, such as Roche Holding AG’s Ronapreve and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., which have become the mainstay of treatment for people who are unable to assemble a response on their own. full immunity, said ICL’s Barclay and the scientists.
Spokesman Karsten Kleine said Roche researchers were working on the new variant and it was too early to say how it would interact with the antibody cocktail.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc, which markets the Covid antibody with Vir Biotechnology Inc., said it believes its antibody will likely work against the variant because it targets a part of the mutated protein shared between many different, distantly related coronaviruses. The company is working urgently to confirm that in the lab, they said in a statement.
Anti-virus warehouse
Even if the new variant works against vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, doctors won’t be able to use the weapon.
Barclay said antiviral drugs like the experimental pill being developed by Pfizer Inc. development can still work.
That’s because of how those pills work in the body. Instead of targeting the virus’s spike protein, like vaccines and other treatments do, they attack differently to stop the virus from replicating. That makes the mutant protein mutants of the new variant less likely to be resistant to the drug.
“None of the mutations signaled a change in susceptibility,” says Barclay.
Antiviral drugs have not yet been approved for use. Pfizer on November 16 applied for an emergency use authorization for the drug in the US; A similar assessment began in the European Union three days later.
The second pill, from Merck & Co., hit a snag after trial results showed it was less effective than previously thought. US Food and Drug Administration officials have raised questions about whether it can cause birth defects, bone and cartilage toxicity, and genetic mutations. An FDA advisory group will meet on Tuesday to review the pill.
