Restorative plasma may have the potential to fight new coronavirus variants

An immunological study published online on the 30th in the British journal Nature showed that antibodies extracted from the first wave of survivors of the new crown epidemic in South Africa have a poor neutralization effect on the new variant (501Y.

The worrisome new variants of the new coronavirus appear to give these viruses an "advantage" in spreading over other strains.

In view of this, Alex Siegel, a scientist at the Institute of African Health in South Africa, and his colleagues compared the neutralizing activity of the serum of survivors infected with different virus variants in the first wave of South Africa and the second wave of the current new crown epidemic.

In laboratory tests, the plasma of the first wave of survivors (except for the one infected with E484K) had worse neutralizing activity against the 501Y.

The research team concluded that the vaccine designed for 501Y.