Multivaccine could provide a broad spectrum of antibodies against different variants of the coronavirus. Currently, there are no such studies, but I think that it would work better - says prof. Agnieszka Szuster-Ciesielska from the Department of Virology and Immunology at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin.
Prof. Agnieszka Szulc-Ciesielska explains that the current SARS-COV-2 vaccine was prepared "on the basis of the original variant of the Wuhan virus and is directed only against one specific virus". "In my opinion, in the future, it would be better to develop a multivariate vaccine than to prepare a vaccine for a given virus variant" - the expert emphasized in an interview with PAP.
She reminded that in January 2022. Pfizer / BioNTech has conducted clinical trials of a vaccine against the Omikron variant.
"The studies were carried out in monkeys given the vaccine adapted to the omicron variant. Then its effectiveness was compared to the first version of the preparation. It turned out that there were no apparent differences in the response to this vaccine," she said.
"Imagine the spike protein S as a set of green blocks - it was the original Wuhan virus. Based on it, a vaccine was prepared to recognize these green blocks. But the virus began to change and other colors appeared that were not recognized by the resulting green blocks. antibodies, "she explained. As she added, "however, there were and are still green blocks in the spike protein seen by the antibodies generated after the administration of the same vaccine".
"Such a vaccine may be less effective, but it still protects against the severe course of COVID-19 and against death. Therefore, companies were in no hurry to modify the preparation, which still provides a good level of protection" - emphasized the expert.
"There are no studies on a multivariate vaccine yet, but I believe that such a multivaccine will work better and will provide us with a very wide range of antibodies against various lines of the coronavirus" - concluded Prof. Szuster-Ciesielska.