How many words have we learned in these pandemic times. By now our everyday vocabulary has been enriched with terms such as viruses, variants, viral mutations, spikes…. We have even relearned the Greek letters, with Omicron which, speaking of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, is now widely dominant in Italy.
Thanks to science, we quickly arrived at vaccines that protect against severe disease, hospitalizations and deaths, changing the history of the pandemic. And a newly published study explains why when we get vaccinated we are still better protected. But there is, as always, room for improvement.
In this sense, to have a vaccine that manages to produce antibodies against a component of the virus that does not mutate it could help us to further improve the results in terms of prevention. And it is on this objective that the research of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità aims straight, which aims to create a prototype capable of stimulating the defenses against a viral protein that does not change, to overcome the drops in efficacy that, for example with the Omicron variant, have been observed.
Spike o non Spike?
Currently available vaccines, with different mechanisms, aim to stimulate the defensive reaction of the human organism towards proteina Spike. We have all learned to recognize those “thorny”, pointed components that are symbolized in the visual representations of the Sars-CoV-2 virus. But there’s a problem.
The Spike, by its nature, tends to change, as happens with the variants. In this sense, Omicron, which also appears more contagious but less aggressive (even if given the large numbers of people who have contracted the infection, the effects in terms of public health and risks remain significant), has a wide range of mutations precisely on the Spike proteins, which therefore make the virus different from the one initially identified at the dawn of the pandemic.
What does this mean? It means that Spike changes and that perhaps it is also necessary to investigate other ways that can make the body’s defensive response more efficient over time, regardless of the onset of any other variants. In this sense, the research of the experts of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità has moved, which aims to change the goal of stimulation for the immune system.
As reported by the scientific journal Virusesin fact, the prototype tested by researchers and tested on laboratory animals with truly encouraging results, in this case, the goal of the defensive stimulus becomes the protein N, instead of the classic Spike. Why can this step be important? For the simple fact that the protein that is the object of the immune stimulation remains common in all viral variants. Thanks to this strategy, therefore, the aim is to generate an immune memory in the lungs which could guarantee a lasting protective effect. We are only at the beginning, but research continues to find new protective solutions with vaccines, regardless of the mutations of the virus.
Why the available vaccines work
Fortunately, pending further evidence on “wide-ranging” vaccines science shows that what we have available today work. The variants in fact they would not be able to “pierce” the protection of vaccines, which continue to shield us against the virus for a very long time because in addition to antibodies they stimulate the formation of T cells, immune system cells with “iron memory” that know how to ‘unmask’ and fight the virus even when it changes face thanks to mutations.
These cells, capable of re-igniting the immune response in a very short time, persist in circulation for a long time, maintaining a reactive response against all variants after 6 months from vaccination, on average equal to about 87-90%, which barely drops to ‘ 84-85% for Omicron alone, compared to the initial post-vaccination one. They are the key to long-lasting immune protection, which protects against severe disease for a long time regardless of possible future mutations of the virus.
To determine these important results is a study published in the journal Cell by a research team of the La Jolla Institute for Immunology of San Diego, led by Alessandro Sette, of the University of California at San Diego, in collaboration with the group of Professor Gilberto Filaci, Director of the Biotherapy Unit of the IRCCS Policlinico Hospital San Martino di Genova and full professor of technical medicine and laboratory sciences at the University of Genoa.
“The study allows us to predict that immunity induced by vaccines is very prolonged as well as probably effective also against future variants: The dose booster is confirmed as the best method to” recall the fight “other memory T cells, strengthening our line of defense against the virus – explains Filaci “.