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Antibodies from people infected with the 501Y.V2 coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa are also effective against previously circulating variants, suggesting that vaccines against 501Y.V2 might work against a range of coronavirus variants. South Africa’s first wave of coronavirus infections peaked in July 2020. The second wave peaked in January 2021, and was driven by the recently discovered 501Y.V2 variant (also called B.1.351). The variant is partially resistant to antibodies against previously circulating variants, raising concerns about the effectiveness of current vaccines against it. Tulio de Oliveira at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, Alex Sigal at the Africa Health Research Institute, also in Durban, and their colleagues tested blood plasma from people in South Africa who had been infected during one of the two waves (S. Cele et al. Nature https://doi.org/f362; 2021). The team found that plasma from the second wave was 15 times more effective at preventing the 501Y.V2 variant from infecting cells in a laboratory dish, compared with plasma from the first wave. The scientists also found that second-wave plasma could neutralize first-wave variants with an effectiveness similar to that of the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine. This implies that updated vaccines against 501Y.V2 could also protect against earlier coronavirus variants.
Original Findings Published in Nature (March 29, 2021):
