Does the booster vaccine adequately protect against the ‘Kraken’ variant of coronavirus?

The XBB.1.5 variant is the most infectious yet discovered, but is it also an immune escape champion? The advance publication provides the first elements of an answer regarding the efficacy of available vaccines against this myriad variant of Omicron.

XBB.1.5, or “Kraken” as it’s nicknamed Canadian biology professor Whoever would like to see SARS-CoV-2 variants renamed after monsters of Greek mythology, is very excited ContagiousContagious But does it escape our immune defenses? For each new variant that is discovered, scientists must answer this crucial public health question.

Escape from the Kraken antibody variant

The available data for XBB.1.5 is still very incomplete. Preliminary version on BioRvix Address this question through a study immune responseimmune response cellular and humoral profiles of 30 volunteers who received a booster dose ofA bivalent RNA vaccine from Pfizer or Modernadesigned to combat variants ofOmicronOmicron. they SerumSerum They were sampled and contacted with virus-like particles mimicking the XBB.1.5 variant to test its neutralizing properties antibodyantibody And in the second test effective lymphocyteslymphocytes T.

Not surprisingly, XBB.1.5 escapes neutralizing antibodies, but in similar proportions to that observed for XBB.1. The F486P mutation located in proteinprotein S makes it highly contagious but does not increase immune escape. Reactive T lymphocytes always remain active against XBB.1.5. The pre-boost version also states that the booster dose is only effective for three months, after which the amounts of neutralizing antibodies drop to the pre-boost level. Even if its effectiveness declines rapidly, a booster dose of the vaccine is the most effective and safest way to protect against it The emergence of new types of SARS-CoV-2.