However, the test tubes (or “in vitro”, scientifically) samples tested in this new study did not show that Omicron “outperformed” all other variants in their potential to avoid protection from previous infection or vaccination.
The findings also suggested that while a strategy to boost the third dose may “significantly improve immunity”, protection from Omicron “may be compromised” – but more research is needed to better understand this.
Report on this very early study, lead author Youchun WangA senior researcher at Chinaโs national food and drug control institutes said their results supported recent findings in South Africa that stressed that Omicron was “easy to avoid immunity.”
โWe found that a large number of mutations in the Omicron variant caused significant changes in neutralization susceptibility to people who had already had COVID,โ Wang said.
โHowever, the average ED50 (level of protection) against Omicron is still higher than baseline, indicating that some protective effect can still be seen,โ Wang added.
However, Wang, a former president of medical virology and vice president of medical microbiology and immunology at the Chinese Medical Association, added caution.
He said that because antibody protection – in the form of a previous infection or vaccination – gradually diminished over six months, Omicron “may be able to escape immunity even better”.
In addition, his team predicted that while “a strategy to enhance the third dose may significantly improve immunity,” protection from Omicron may be compromised.
A panel of 11 scientists examined 28 serum samples from patients recovering from the original SARS-CoV-2 strain. They tested these in vitro samples of Omicron, as well as four other strains that had been marked as “of concern” by the World Health Organization (such as Delta) and two variants marked as “of interest.”
โThis study confirms the enhanced immune response of the Omicron variant, which alerts the world and has important implications for public health planning and the development of compatible strategies,โ Wang summed up.
Now the group noted that more research, not only in vitro but also in real-life studies, is urgently needed to better understand Omicron. And in particular, whether it escaped the immunity caused by the vaccine to cause more serious illness and death.
โThere is a need to re-evaluate whether antibodies can be effective against the Omicron variant,โ the authors noted.
โThe exact effect on human protection may be affected by several factors, such as the infectivity of the Omicron variant in relation to other variants in human populations and the suitability of the Omicron virus when humans are infected,โ they said.
โMore population-based studies, including the level of immune protection and symptoms in Omicron-infected people, are needed to fully understand the global impact of Omicron on the management of the COVID-19 pandemic,โ they added.
The main caveat to this study is that it is in vitro in nature and used pseudotyped (prepared) viruses. However, previous studies have used in vitro “good correlation” as an established measure, and the current vaccine literature has shown that in vitro neutralization assays are good predictors of vaccine protective efficacy and true vaccine efficacy.
Therefore, the authors stated that their data may well predict a possible deterioration in vaccine protection against the new Omicron variant.
Source: ANI
Source: The Nordic Page