How effective is Moderna’s omicron booster? Interesting research results
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Soon after the world learned about the existence of Omicron, Moderna announced the start of work on a booster vaccine against this mutation. A preliminary study on its effectiveness has just been published. It has not yet been reviewed, so it cannot be considered conclusive. Nevertheless, it is worth knowing what it showed. The results are food for thought.

  1. At the end of November, the American concern Moderna announced work on a booster dose designed specifically against Omikron
  2. At the beginning of February, the preliminary results of tests on the effectiveness of the Omikron-tailored vaccine on animals (macaques) were published.
  3. It turned out that the Omicron-specific booster did not provide more protection against this super-variant than the current Moderna booster boost.
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Moderna announces work on a tailored boost for Omikron

The discovery of Omicron immediately raised concerns about the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. The main reason for these concerns was the unprecedented number of mutations developed by the variant. As many as 50 of them have been located, including over 30 in the area of ​​the spike protein that attaches to our cells, allowing the virus to penetrate inside them.

The effect is that the Omicron spike protein is significantly different from the Delta protein and the original SARS-CoV-2 virus on which our vaccines are based. This, in turn, means that in the case of a super variant, only some antibodies induced by vaccination will bind to it and inhibit the entry of the pathogen into the cells.

Therefore, tests of the effectiveness of the vaccines used against Omikron have been started. Already at the end of November, the American pharmaceutical company Moderna announced work on a booster dose designed specifically against the superwariant. Clinical trials began in late January, and on February 4, preliminary animal testing results from scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest biomedical research agency (part of the US Department of Health and Human Services), were released. The work was published on bioRxiv, a repository of preprints for the life sciences. As it turned out?

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Efficiency of the Moderna omicron booster. Interesting research results

NIH researchers studied the effects of Moderna’s omicron vaccine on a group of eight monkeys (macaques). All animals first received two standard doses of Moderna vaccine. Half of the monkeys were then given a standard booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and the remaining four were given a booster specifically designed against the Omikron variant.

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Both boosters activated immune cells called memory B cells that attacked both the old version of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and the Omikron mutation. Moreover, amplification with an Omikron specific vaccine did not provide much protection against this superwariant. Regardless of the booster dose the monkey received, between 70 and 80 percent. B cells were specific to the old virus and the Omicron. In other words, administration of Omicron-specific vaccines to macaques or a normal booster injection resulted in the same increase in antibodies.

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This finding calls into question the need to switch to doses specific to the Omikron variant. “Boosting with an Omicron-specific dose may not provide greater immunity or protection compared to boosting with the current Moderna vaccine,” concluded the researchers. Of course, the results of the study will have to be verified in ongoing human trials. However, scientists expect the effect to continue. Remember that the current boosters provide strong protection against Omicrons.

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