NEW YORK (Reuters) People infected with the first version of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, first identified in South Africa in November, may be susceptible to reinfection with later versions of the omicron even if they have been vaccinated and boosted received , according to a report New Search.
Patients vaccinated with BA.1 infections have developed antibodies capable of neutralizing this virus and the original SARSCoV2 virus, but the micron strains currently circulating have mutations that allow them to evade these antibodies , researchers in China said Friday in the journal Nature.
Omicron BA.2.12.1, which currently causes most infections in the United States, and Omicrons BA.5 and BA.4, which now account for more than 21% of new cases in the United States, contain mutations not present in the Omicron versions BA.1 and BA.2.
These newer sublineages “escape the neutralizing antibodies induced by SARSCoV2 infection and vaccination,” the researchers found using testtube experiments.
According to the experiments, monoclonal antibody drugs such as Eli Lilly’s bebtelovimab and cilgavimab, a component of AstraZeneca’s Evusheld, can still effectively neutralize variants BA.2.12.1 and BA.4/BA.5.
But booster vaccines based on the BA.1 virus, such as those being developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, “may not achieve broadspectrum protection against novel variants of the omicron,” the researchers warned.