“Of particular concern … is the emergence of the E484K mutation (found in the South African variant), which has so far only been observed in a relatively small number of individuals,” said Ravi Gupta, a professor at Cambridge University’s Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease, who co-led the study.
“Our work suggests that the vaccine is likely to be less effective in dealing with this mutation.”
Britain and many other countries have begun rolling out the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to try to stop the spread of the pandemic disease.
Although the highly effective vaccine is designed to be given in two doses approximately three weeks apart, the UK government has chosen to extend that length of time to a maximum of 12 weeks in order to reach as many people as possible with a first dose as soon as possible .
The study released on Tuesday used blood samples from 26 people who had received their first dose of Pfizer vaccine three weeks earlier to test whether the injection would protect against two variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus – the British variant known as B1 . .1.7., And the South African variant, which has the E484K mutation.
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When testing the blood serum samples, all but seven of the participants had high enough antibodies to neutralize the virus – that is, to protect against infection, the researchers said.
However, when the scientists added all the major mutations in the B1.1.7 variant, they found that the vaccine’s efficacy was compromised, with an average of two times higher levels of antibody needed to neutralize the virus.
When the E484K mutation was added, even greater levels of antibody were required to neutralize the virus – with an average of a 10-fold increase required, the researchers said.
Dami Collier, who co-led the work, said the findings suggest that “a significant proportion of people over the age of 80 may not have developed protective neutralizing antibodies against infection three weeks after their first dose of the vaccine.”
Clinical trial data released last week on two other COVID-19 vaccines – from Novavax and Johnson & Johnson – also found that the South African coronavirus reduced their ability to protect against the disease.