The Pfizer Coronavirus
vaccine is moderately less effective against the South African variant, but
neutralizes the British variant and the original SARS-CoV-2 strain very well,
according to a new vaccine study conducted by Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev scientists.
Their findings were published this week in the prestigious journal Cell
Host & Microbe.
The scientists looked at the effectiveness of the vaccine against the original
viral strain, the British and the South African variants, as well as strains
that harbor combined changes in the viral spike. They are continuing to test
other circulating variants as they constantly emerge with the hope to identify
potentially risky mutations that can compromise the vaccine. Their findings
indicate that the Pfizer vaccine is effective against the original SARS-CoV-2
strain and the British variant, but provides weakened protection against the
South African variant and the combined British-South African variants.
“Our findings show that future variants could necessitate a modified vaccine as
the virus mutates to increase its infectivity,” says principal investigator
Prof. Ran Taube (pictured above) of the Shraga Segal Department of Microbiology, Immunology and
Genetics in the Faculty of Health Sciences.
Prof. Taube and his team also compared neutralizing antibody levels following
administration of one and two doses of the vaccine, as opposed to levels in
patients that have recovered from Covid-19. They found that vaccination
provided optimal levels of protection, when compared to the lower levels of
protection that were observed in recovered patients.
Additional researchers include first author Alona Kuzmina, a research
investigator in Prof. Taube’s lab, and collaborating investigators from Soroka
University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva - Yara Khalaila, Olga Voloshin, Ayelet
Keren-Naus, Liora Bohehem, Yael Raviv, Prof. Yonat Shemer-Avni, and Dr. Elli
Rosenberg.
This study was supported by the Israel Ministry of Science and Technology grant no. 3-16897, the Israel Science Foundation grant application no. 755/17 and the BGU Covid-19 Research Taskforce.
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