Moderna: XBB.1.5 version of COVID-19 vaccine can produce strong immune response against BA.2.86 variant
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Moderna: XBB.1.5 version of COVID-19 vaccine can produce strong immune response against BA.2.86 variant
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Moderna: XBB.1.5 version of COVID-19 vaccine can produce strong immune response against BA.2.86 variant.
On Sep 06, Moderna announced that its latest version of the COVID-19 vaccine, which is about to hit the market, can produce a strong immune response against the BA.2.86 variant.
This also brings some relief to the concerns that the highly mutated virus may trigger a new wave of infections.
(Source: Moderna)
The BA.2.86 variant, also known as “Pirola”, has been reported by CaiLianShe several times before. The main reason for the widespread concern of the WHO and the scientific community is that BA.2.86 has 34 mutations compared to BA.2 and 36 mutations compared to XBB.1.5, which is equivalent to the difference between the original Omicron virus and the original strain. For this reason, scientists were initially highly worried that this virus might show significant escape ability against existing vaccines and immunity acquired by infection.
However, Moderna’s latest research has provided some positive answers to this question.
Moderna said that the trial data showed that the company’s vaccine designed for the XBB.1.5 variant can increase the neutralizing antibody level against the BA.2.86 variant by 8.7 times. In addition to the previously tested EG.5 and FL.1.5.1 variants, Moderna’s new vaccine can increase the neutralizing antibody level against these three variants by 8.7 to 11 times.
Dr. Stephen Hoge, president of Moderna, said that these results demonstrate that the updated Moderna vaccine produces a strong human immune response against the highly mutated BA.2.86 variant. Together with the results released earlier, the vaccine also has equally effective responses to the EG.5 and FL.1.5.1 variants. These data confirm that the updated COVID-19 vaccine will continue to be an important protective tool for the fall vaccination season.
According to the COVID-19 variant tracking and prediction data published on the official website of the US CDC, as of mid-August, EG.5 and FL.1.5.1 variants are showing a trend of increasing proportion, while XBB.1.5 has stepped down from the mainstream variant position and is showing a rapid decline. It is worth mentioning that since BA.2.86 is still in a sporadic situation, the US CDC did not list this virus separately for statistics.
(Source: US CDC)
Moderna said that the latest trial data have been reported to regulators and the paper itself has been submitted for peer review. In addition to Moderna, Pfizer/ BioNTech and Novavax also have new vaccines for XBB.1.5.
BA.2.86 may not be that scary?
Regarding the immune escape ability of BA.2.86, several teams around the world have given similar conclusions: this virus may not be as scary as imagined.
The trial results can be summarized as follows: most people who have been vaccinated or infected with the virus can recognize and fight against BA.2.86, and the actual effect may be even more effective than the current popular XBB new variant . The trial results also showed that people who had been infected with XBB series variants in the past six months had the strongest immune response to BA.2.86 variant.
It should be noted that all these trials used fake viruses in laboratory environments, and the real-world situation still needs further observation.
One of the teams conducting the trial, Dr.Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the United States, introduced that independent laboratory data have shown that compared with current variants , BA .2 .86 does not essentially show further immune escape.
However, Dr.Barouch also mentioned that FL .1 .5 .1 variant , which has been climbing in detection data recently, is also the most escape-capable virus in laboratory . He said: “If it weren’t for so much hype about BA .2 .86 , The actual focus of this paper will be FL .1 .5 .1 .”
Moderna: XBB.1.5 version of COVID-19 vaccine can produce strong immune response against BA.2.86 variant
(source:internet, reference only)
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