"Encouraging": New Astrazeneca Hope?

Study of the effectiveness against Omikron

Created: 12/26/2021, 10:26 PM

After the third dose, the Astrazeneca vaccine probably also works well against the Omikron corona variant.

© Avanti / Ralf Poller / Imago

According to an Oxford study, a booster vaccination with Astrazeneca also works well against the new Corona variant - but it remains significantly more challenging than Delta.

Cambridge / Oxford - Booster the vaccine from Astrazeneca also has an effect against Omikron, according to the manufacturer.

The number of antibodies directed against Omikron was one month after the Astra booster vaccination at a similar level as the number after a second dose against the Delta variant.

The British-Swedish pharmaceutical company announced this shortly before Christmas.

Astrazeneca: Corona booster also provides protection from Omikron

Specifically: The number of antibodies directed against the Omikron increased according to the current study by 2.7 times - compared to the level four weeks after the second Astra dose.

Study researcher John Bell called it "encouraging that current vaccines have the potential to protect against omicrons after a third dose".

The pharmaceutical companies Pfizer / Biontech and Moderna had previously come up with similar results for their booster vaccinations.

At Biontech, however, the booster was much stronger: With this vaccine, the number of antibodies fighting Omikron increased by a good 34-fold, according to the manufacturer.

There were no statements about cross vaccination.

And there is currently no data on how long the protection will last.

Research on vaccines against Omikron with neutralization tests

For their studies, which have not yet been published in a specialist journal, researchers at Oxford University examined samples in the laboratory from people vaccinated with Astrazeneca and Biontech, including 41 people who had already received a booster vaccination with Astrazeneca.

However, the most common use in the UK is Biontech and Moderna as booster vaccines.

In order to examine the effect of a vaccine against a virus variant, researchers usually do so-called neutralization tests.

It is checked how many antibodies a vaccinated person has in the blood that can bind to a virus variant and thus switch it off.

The actual protection of vaccinated persons cannot be determined with this, however, clinical studies with thousands of test persons or evaluations of the ongoing infection process are required.

The British study also showed that the Astrazeneca vaccine was less effective in fighting Omikron than its predecessor Delta, even after a booster: One month after the third vaccination, the number of antibodies directed against Omikron was 3.6 times lower than the number fighting Delta Antibody.