Mixing COVID-19 Vaccines Provide Better Immune Response

Mixing COVID-19 vaccines could lead to a better immune response. A first dose of AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech shot followed by Moderna nine weeks later could induce more production of antibodies.

"We found a really good immune response across the board., in fact, higher than the threshold set by Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine two doses," Matthew Snape, the Oxford professor behind the trial dubbed Com-COV2, told Reuters.

‘Poor and middle income countries may have to consider combining different brands of COVID-19 shots if supplies run low or become unstable.’
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Flexible dosing may offer hope to poor and middle income countries which may need to combine different brands between first and second shots if supplies run low or become unstable.

"I think the data from this study will be especially interesting and valuable to low- and middle-income countries where they're still rolling out the first two doses of vaccines," Snape said.

The study done on 1,070 volunteers also found that a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine followed by a Moderna shot was better than two doses of the standard Pfizer-BioNTech course.

Pfizer-BioNTech followed by Novavax induced higher antibodies than the two-dose Oxford-AstraZeneca schedule, although this schedule induced lower antibody and T-cell responses than the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech schedule.

No safety concerns were raised, according to the Oxford University study published in the Lancet medical journal.

Longevity of protection offered by vaccines has been under scrutiny, with booster doses being considered amid raising cases. New variants like Delta and Omicron, have now raised the pressure to speed up vaccination campaigns.

Blood samples from participants were tested against the Beta and Delta variants, researchers of the Com-COV2 study said.

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Deploying vaccines using technology from Pfizer and Moderna's mRNA, AstraZeneca's viral vector and Novavax's protein-based shot, and within the same schedule is new.

The results may inform new approaches to immunization against other diseases.

The study also found that a first dose of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine followed by any of the other candidates in the study generated a particularly robust response, consistent with findings in June.

The study was designed as a so-called "non-inferiority" study, which is aimed to demonstrate that mixing is not worse than the standard schedules and compares the immune system responses to the gold-standard responses reported in previous clinical trials of each vaccine.

Source-Medindia