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Corona: mRNA vaccine also works against BQ.1.1

Corona: mRNA vaccine also works against BQ.1.1

Studies by the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer brought good news on Friday: The bivalent omicron mRNA vaccine developed with BioNTech (Mainz) apparently also helps against the new mutant. This was reported on Friday by the Deutsches Ärzteblatt.

“The Omikron BA.4/BA.5 adapted bivalent Covid-19 vaccine from BioNTech/Pfizer probably also protects against the BA.1.5 subline BQ.1.1, which is currently spreading in Germany. Laboratory studies by the manufacturer indicate that whose results were published in bioRxiv (preprint, still without peer review; 2022; DOI:10.1101/2022.11.17.516898; note)”, wrote the journal of the German Medical Association (online edition). In the afternoon there had been a broadcast from the pharmaceutical company. BQ.1.1 differs from BA.4/BA.5, whose spike gene is part of the current bivalent vaccines from Biontech/Pfizer and Moderna, by three mutations in the spike protein gene (R346T, K444T and N460K).

Pfizer had scientists at the University of Texas in Galveston investigate whether the mutant could escape the vaccine protection. The medical journal: “The study enrolled subjects over the age of 55 who, after three previous doses of 30 micrograms of BNT162b2 (in the original configuration), had received a fourth dose containing either BNT162b2 in the original configuration or BNT162b2 in the original configuration bivalent composition with a proportion of 15 micrograms BA.4/5.” After four days and after one month, the test persons’ blood sera were examined for their neutralization capacity (antibodies) with regard to several mutants, including BQ.1.1.

According to the data that has now been published, the bivalent vaccine increased the antibody concentration against BA.4/5 from 66 to 856 (GMT unit; note), i.e. by a factor of 13, while the original vaccine only increased from 82 to 236 ( by a factor of 2.9; note). This confirms that BNT162b2 in its current configuration is doing its job better than the first Covid-19 mRNA vaccine. For BQ.1.1, there was a GMT increase from 29 to 252 (by a factor of 8.7) after the bivalent booster versus an increase from 31 to 58 (by a factor of 1.8) with a monovalent booster. In the current configuration, BNT162b2 is therefore better able to protect against BQ.1.1 than the first vaccine. However, the protective effect could be somewhat weaker than against BA.4/5.

Source: Nachrichten

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