Neutralization of variant under investigation B.1.617 with sera of BBV152 vaccines
Several variants of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS CoV-2) have been reported in India from the start of the pandemic. Pragya D. Yadav and colleagues conducted research titled “Neutralization of variant under investigation B.1.617 with sera of BBV152 vaccinees” published in the bioRxiv. The summary of this study is given below:
Objective:
To investigate the neutralization efficiency of convalescent sera and the sera collected from BBV152 (Covaxin) vaccinated individuals against the B1(D614G) and B.1.617 variants.
Method:
146 COVID-19 cases were identified from the state of Maharashtra between January to March 2021. Nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs were collected from all the patients and screening was conducted for next-generation sequencing using the Illumina platform. Among these 15 retrieved SARS-CoV-2 sequences demonstrated the existence of a combination of L452R and E484Q mutations. Virus isolation was aimed from all 15 specimens with the help of Vero-CCL-81 cells.
Findings:
While the study reports a drop in neutralization with the B.1.617 variant, the reduction of neutralizing capability was bounded to 2-fold. BNT162b2 vaccinees have also shown similar and effectively neutralized B.1.1.7 and P.1 variants equally. Additionally, the neutralization of the B.1.351 variant was reduced with BNT162b2 vaccinees but it was found to be robust. Lastly, the findings from this study support previous results comparing BBV152 induced immune responses to neutralize the B.1.1.7 and D614G variants equally.
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