Science

NNadir

(34,661 posts) Fri Jul 15, 2022, 10:29 PM Jul 2022

Moderna's omicron booster triggers stronger response against subvariants than its original shot.

This is news from a trade publication website:

Moderna's omicron booster triggers stronger response against subvariants than its original shot, company says.

Just a few weeks after the FDA recommended that COVID-19 vaccine manufactures tweak their boosters to zero in on the omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, Moderna has unveiled promising new data for its prospect.

On Monday, the mRNA specialist said its omicron-containing bivalent booster elicited higher neutralizing antibody responses compared with the current booster. After one month, trial participants who received the bivalent booster had BA.4 and BA.5 neutralizing antibodies that were 1.69 times higher than those who received the original booster, the company said.

The data has been shared with regulators and submitted for peer-reviewed publication. The company is working with regulators to advance two bivalent vaccine candidates based on various market preferences...

My guess is that until we can vaccinate all of humanity, including those in poor countries, we are going to need regular modified boosters. Happily, this technology is flexible and we have the technical capability to fully map the protein sequences of the S-Protein quickly in order to adjust the payload RNA, but it does seem the infectiousness allows for fast evolution of the viral genome.

7 replies

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Moderna's omicron booster triggers stronger response against subvariants than its original shot. (Original Post) NNadir Jul 2022 OP

I hope this booster is publicly available in the next few months. LonePirate Jul 2022 #1

We now have manufacturing infrastructure that we didn't have on the first pass. NNadir Jul 2022 #3

How long will this process take? Deuxcents Jul 2022 #2

Please see post #3. NNadir Jul 2022 #4

Thanks.. we must have hit enter at the same time! Deuxcents Jul 2022 #5

I hope this continues to be available FoxNewsSucks Jul 2022 #6

Here's a discussion of the FDA vote, boosters, etc.... xocetaceans Jul 2022 #7

LonePirate

(13,893 posts)

1. I hope this booster is publicly available in the next few months.

Reply to NNadir (Original post)

Fri Jul 15, 2022, 10:32 PM

Jul 2022

NNadir

(34,661 posts)

3. We now have manufacturing infrastructure that we didn't have on the first pass.

Reply to LonePirate (Reply #1)

Fri Jul 15, 2022, 10:36 PM

Jul 2022

A lot comes down to the regulators, but I think it will be relatively fast.

I worked on the front lines of scale ups of this nature back in the days of AIDS treatments with the first generation protease inhibitors. The second pass was much easier than the first.

Deuxcents

(19,706 posts)

2. How long will this process take?

Reply to NNadir (Original post)

Fri Jul 15, 2022, 10:35 PM

Jul 2022

I’ll be needing my third booster in October. All my shots have been Moderna so I’m ready.

NNadir

(34,661 posts)

4. Please see post #3.

Reply to Deuxcents (Reply #2)

Fri Jul 15, 2022, 10:37 PM

Jul 2022

Deuxcents

(19,706 posts)

5. Thanks.. we must have hit enter at the same time!

Reply to NNadir (Reply #4)

Fri Jul 15, 2022, 10:39 PM

Jul 2022

FoxNewsSucks

(10,790 posts)

6. I hope this continues to be available

Reply to NNadir (Original post)

Fri Jul 15, 2022, 10:58 PM

Jul 2022

but if republicons retake control of the federal government, it will only be available to the rich.

Just like in late 2020. There will be no plan for vaccinating the "commoners".

xocetaceans

(3,943 posts)

7. Here's a discussion of the FDA vote, boosters, etc....

Reply to NNadir (Original post)

Sat Jul 16, 2022, 12:18 AM

Jul 2022

A booster-relevant topic which is discussed is the idea of "original antigenic sin". The early HPV vaccine is given as an example. That discussion starts at about 24:10 in the video and finishes at about 29:54, but the entire episode is worth watching - especially the first half hour. (TWiV is produced by a virologist.)

Obviously, the main question always needs to be what peer-reviewed (published) data is there that indicates a particular assertion is correct.

Here is an introductory course in virology: it is a schematically oriented overview.

From that course, here is the lecture on viral evolution. In particular, the idea of an error threshold has to do with the evolution of the virus. The section "Diversity is selected" starts at about 15:22 and is followed by the section "Error threshold" which starts at about 17:12.

That is something which you might find broadly interesting given the statement "...allows for fast evolution of the viral genome."

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