Vaccines and previous infection could offer some 'stronger than basic' protection to Omicron, early study suggests

Date:
December 12, 2021
Source:
Taylor & Francis Group
Summary:
One of the earliest, peer-reviewed studies looking into the Omicron
variant of COVID-19 suggests that people previously infected with
COVID, and those vaccinated, will have some, 'stronger than basic'
defence against this new strain of concern.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Published today, one of the earliest, peer-reviewed studies looking into
the Omicron variant of COVID-19 suggests that people previously infected
with COVID, and those vaccinated, will have some, "stronger than basic"
defence against this new strain of concern.


========================================================================== However, the test tube (or 'in-vitro', scientifically) samples of Omicron examined in this new research do show it "exceeds" all other variants
in its potential capability to evade the protection gained from previous infection or vaccination.

Published in Emerging Microbes & Infection, the findings also suggest
that although a third-dose enhancement strategy can "significantly boost immunity," the protection from Omicron "may be compromised" -- but more research is needed to better understand this.

Reporting on this very early study, lead author Youchun Wang, Senior
Research Fellow from the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control in China, says their results support recent findings in South Africa which highlight Omicron was "easy to evade immunity." "We found the large
number of mutations of the Omicron variant did cause significant changes
of neutralization sensitivity against people who had already had COVID,"
Wang says.

"However, the average ED50 (protection level) against Omicron is still
higher than the baseline, which indicated there is still some protection
effect can be observed." Wang, who is Former Chairman of the Medical
Virology and Vice Chairman of the Medical Microbiology and Immunology
of the Chinese Medical Association, does adds caution though.



==========================================================================
He says that because the antibody protection -- in the form of previous infection or vaccination -- decreases gradually over a period of six
months, Omicron "may be able to escape immunity even better." Plus,
his team's paper predicts that whilst "a third-dose enhancement strategy
can significantly boost immunity," the "protection from Omicron may be compromised." The expert team of 11 scientists looked at 28 serum samples
from patients recovering from the original strain of SARS-CoV-2. They
tested these against in-vitro Omicron samples, as well as four other
strains marked 'of concern' by the World Health Organization (such as
Delta), and two variants marked as 'of interest'.

"This study verifies the enhanced immune escape of Omicron variant,
which sounds the alarm to the world and has important implications for
the public health planning and the development of matching strategies,"
Wang summarizes.

Now, the team states that more research, carried out not just in-vitro
but in real-world studies is urgently needed to better understand
Omicron. And, specifically, whether it can "escape from the vaccine
elicited immunity to cause more severe disease and death." "It needs
to be re-evaluated whether the antibodies can still be effective against
the Omicron variant," the authors state.



==========================================================================
"The exact impact to human protection may be influenced by more factors
such as the infectivity of Omicron variant relative to other variants
to human populations and the viral fitness of Omicron once the humans
are infected.

"More population studies including the level of immune protection
and symptoms among people infected with Omicron are needed to fully
establish the global impact of Omicron to the control of COVID-19
pandemic." The major caveat of this study is that it is in-vitro in
nature and that it used pseudotyped (manufactured) viruses. However,
previous studies have used in-virto as an established measure of "good correlation" and the current vaccine literature "has established
that the in vitro neutralization assays are good predictors of
vaccine protection efficacy and real-world vaccine effectiveness."
Therefore, the authors state, their data "may well predict the potential reduction of vaccine protection against the new Omicron variant." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Taylor_&_Francis_Group. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Li Zhang, Qianqian Li, Ziteng Liang, Tao Li, Shuo Liu, Qianqian Cui,
Jianhui Nie, Qian Wu, Xiaowang Qu, Weijin Huang, Youchun Wang. The
significant immune escape of pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 Variant Omicron.

Emerging Microbes & Infections, 2021; 1 DOI: 10.1080/
22221751.2021.2017757 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211212085330.htm

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