JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – New COVID-19 Variant Identified in South Africa May Dodge Antibodies It Attacks in Blood Plasma Treatments of Previously Recovered Patients, and May Diminish the Efficacy of Current Line of Vaccines, Scientists Said Wednesday .
Researchers are rushing to determine whether the vaccines currently being rolled out around the world are effective against the so-called 501Y.V2 variant, identified by South African genomics experts in Nelson Mandela Bay late last year.
“This line shows complete escape from three classes of therapeutically relevant monoclonal antibodies,” the team of scientists from three South African universities collaborating with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) wrote in a paper published in the bioRxiv journal.
“In addition, 501Y.V2 exhibits substantial or complete escape from neutralizing antibodies in COVID-19 restorative plasma,” they wrote, adding that their conclusions “highlight the prospect of reinfection … and possibly foreshadow the diminished efficacy of the current vaccines based on spikes. “
The 501Y.V2 variant is 50% more contagious than the previous one, South African researchers said this week. It has already spread to at least 20 countries since it was reported to the World Health Organization in late December.
It is one of many new variants discovered in recent months, including others first found in England and Brazil.
The variant is the leading cause of the second wave of COVID-19 infections in South Africa, which reached a new daily peak of more than 21,000 cases earlier this month, well above the first wave, before dropping to about 12,000 a day .
Restorative blood plasma from previous patients has not been shown to be effective when administered to critically ill patients requiring intensive care for COVID-19, but it has been approved as an emergency measure in several countries.
British scientists and politicians have expressed concern that vaccines currently in use or in development may be less effective against the variant.
The paper said it remains to be seen how effective the current vaccines were against 501Y.V2, which would only be determined by large-scale clinical trials. But the results showed that new vaccines need to be designed to address the evolving threat, it said.
Reporting by Tim Cocks; Editing by Peter Graff