COVID-19: Do we need new variant-targeted vaccines and how is Sputnik V better

It was a miracle of modern science to develop vaccines against COVID-19 in less than a year. As the Delta- and Omicron-fueled second and third waves surged across the country, the protection offered by the vaccines came down. The limited capacity to perform genome sequencing of each sample was highlighted. To protect us against the Omicron and other variants, vaccination and following COVID-19 safety measures look to be the only way to prevent the disease and deaths from it.

The COVID-19 virus is an RNA virus which means the genetic material for SARS-CoV-2 is encoded in ribonucleic acid (RNA). When the virus multiplies in the body some parts of its structure change, leading to mutation and emergence of new variants like Delta & Omicron. Some SARS-CoV-2 variants are labelled as variants of concern if they become more infective, render available treatment ineffective or become more lethal. The new variants my reduce the protection offered in a population against the old variants acquired by infection or vaccination. That means new treatments and vaccines must be created or a booster dose of available vaccines may or given each time a new strain of virus emerges.

According to Cowin.gov.in, over 67 crore people in India have been vaccinated mainly with Covaxin, Covishield or Sputnik V. While Covaxin is developed with Whole-Virion Inactivated Vero Cell-derived technology, which means that it contains inactivated viruses that cannot infect and multiply a person to give immunity, Covishield utilises modified spike proteins from a chimpanzee adenovirus – ChAdOx1virus to elicit immune response against this protein of the virus. Since Omicron has a different mutated gene, it is causing a high proportion of breakthrough infections in both infected and fully vaccinated individuals. Sputnik V uses a heterologous recombinant adenovirus approach in which adenovirus 26 (Ad26) and adenovirus 5 (Ad5) are used as vectors for the expression of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

A recent study conducted at the Italian Spallanzani Institute, the leading Italian research institute for infectious diseases, by a joint Italian-Russian team of researchers representing the Institute and the Gamaleya Centre shows that the Sputnik V vaccine demonstrates more than two times higher titters of virus neutralizing antibodies to Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant. Alexander Gintsburg, the head at Russia's Gamaleya Research Centre, said that the Sputnik V vaccine has a 75 per cent efficacy against the Omicron variant. The study was conducted in the equal laboratory conditions in the Spallanzani Institute in Italy on comparable sera samples from individuals vaccinated with Sputnik V and Pfizer with a similar level of IgG antibodies and virus neutralizing activity (VNA) against Wuhan variant.

Witnessing a rise in the number of active cases along with India’s vaccination drive being far from over, this study will help the policy makers to plan their future course of action to protect the population from the latest variant Omicron or future variants of COVID-19.

The author is Chairman, Indian Academy of Public Health, and Indian Alliance of Patients group. Views expressed are personal

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