Although we’re well easing into Singapore’s vaccination roll out plan, which has recently phased into being offered to senior citizens, many unknowns about the vaccines still plague people everywhere.
So many questions are still left unanswered – how safe is it, and how exactly does it work?
Just as you wouldn’t stop studying until you ace the exam just because you got a good grade on the test, scientists are still extending their research about the vaccine day by day.
Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Can Produce Antibodies & Immune Cells
The latest Singaporean study on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine found that it can actually produce specific types of antibodies and immune cells fighting against the Sars-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, and it can do so as soon as 12 days with a single dose.
Lest you didn’t know, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has an efficacy rate of 95% and requires two different doses to be administered three weeks apart.
Other studies like this one in Israel found the vaccine, administered on healthcare workers, to have an 85% efficacy rate against COVID-19, while research in Canada found a 92.6% efficacy after the first dose.
It even led the Canadian researchers to suggest that delaying the second dose of the vaccine was a possibility as well.
There was also an international Pfizer-BioNTech trial conducted among 44,000 participants that showed the number of COVID-19 cases dwindling out amongst a vaccinated group after 10 to 12 days, yet cases rose amongst those who did not receive the vaccine.
So, the good research folks over at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and the Duke-NUS Medical School did more studies following these discoveries.
The early development of antibodies and T-cells, a type of immune cells which specifically target the Sars-CoV-2 virus, were found to play a part in offering this protection to people.
Researchers could assess future vaccines and monitor its longevity of immunity against COVID-19 with these findings, said Professor Ooi Eng Eong, professor of emerging infectious diseases at Duke-NUS and corresponding author of the study.
On The Hunt For Antibodies
How is the effectiveness of a vaccine actually measured, you may ask?
Well, scientists usually search for the presence of a specific type of antibody called neutralising antibodies, which latches on to the Sars-CoV-2 virus and stops it from infecting human cells like a bodyguard.
However, in studies done for both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, they didn’t find any detectable levels of neutralising antibodies 12 days after the first dose of the vaccine, despite the level of protection.
“So it must be something else in the body, whether it’s T-cells or some other non-neutralising antibody that is conferring the protection. That was what we wanted to find out,” said Associate Professor Jenny Low, senior consultant with the Department of Infectious Diseases at SGH.
20 healthcare workers who took the vaccine back in January were observed for their immune responses to delve deeper into the findings.
Just 10 days after receiving their first dose of the vaccine, all 20 of them had developed T-cells that were able to recognise this thing called a spike protein of the Sars-CoV-2 virus.
The spike protein of the Sars-CoV-2 virus cell is the thing that intervene entry of the virus into human cells.
T-cells are also similar to guard dogs, or the authorities – they are important components of the immune system that detect and remove virus-infected cells in order to stop viruses from spreading further.
80% of the healthcare workers, or 16 of them, also developed antibodies that fight against the virus’ spike protein after 12 days.
However, only four of the 20 developed the neutralising antibodies after 12 days, although they have been widely assumed to be essential in the protection against the virus, said Prof Ooi.
“Although the durability of protection that comes with a single dose is currently unknown, the protection… at this 12-day mark offers us an opportunity to understand the body’s immune response that is required for protection against Covid-19,” he added.
Hopefully more breakthroughs about the vaccine will be made so that we’ll be more at ease with sticking it up our arms.
Featured Image: Siraj Ahmad / Shutterstock.com
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