A new study indicates that coronavirus variants are not more resistant to vaccines and previous infection, a finding that should help allay one of the major worries about the course of the pandemic.
Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Immunology and the University of California San Diego examined the response of T-cells in the blood samples of 11 people who had previously been infected with COVID-19 and 19 people who had been vaccinated. They tested them against variants from the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, and California.
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T-cells are part of the human immune system that help fight infection. The study examined the response of T-cells known as CD4+, which help identify an infection, and CD8+, so-called “killer T-cells,” that help fight infection. The response of the T-cells were as robust against the variants as they were against the original coronavirus.
The study, which has not yet been published or peer-reviewed, stated that while T-cells would probably not prevent COVID-19 infection, they would likely reduce the severity of the disease.
The study is welcome news in the wake of recent studies suggesting that certain coronavirus variants may be able to avoid antibodies. Recent research has found that the California strain was two times more resistant to Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, while a study by vaccine maker Novavax found that its vaccine was only 50% effective against the South African strain.
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On Tuesday, a new study from Brazil found that the Brazilian variant resulted in a six-fold decrease in antibodies in blood sampled from both people who had been vaccinated or were previously infected with the virus.
