Moderna booster is powerful for newer variants like Delta

The medical journal Nature Medicine published the details of the clinical trial carried out by the American pharmaceutical company. According to it, the booster doses of Moderna’s vaccine and the modified variant against Covid are safe. They are well tolerated and raise antibody levels in all variants of SARS-CoV-2, including the new ones: Beta, Gamma, and Delta. These are the main results of the trial, which is still in progress. 

The appearance of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 and the possibility that they are capable of neutralizing antibodies, has aroused many concerns and interests. One of them is verifying whether booster doses and specific vaccines for each variant remain optimal.

The booster shot produced a strong antibody response

To verify the safety and efficacy of a booster dose against SARS-CoV-2, Moderna has carried out a trial with 80 individuals. They had received the full vaccination of two doses six months before.

During the trial, led by Moderna’s Darin Edwards, the participants, divided into four groups of 20 people. The groups received a booster dose of either a parent vaccine or a variant-modified vaccine, such as the multivariate mRNA-1273,211 vaccine.

Shortly before the booster dose, there were limited levels of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in the blood.

In addition, the levels of neutralizing antibodies against the Beta, Gamma, and Delta variants were also low or undetectable, the study points out.

They found that all three booster vaccines tested increased levels of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. The increases were significant in people who received the Moderna, the original, and the modified vaccines. 

Additionally, all three boosters increased antibody levels against Beta, Gamma, and Delta variants, among other variants.

The authors acknowledge that this preliminary analysis has been done with a small group of people. Their results are based on treatment groups that were not randomized. However, they believe that the mRNA platform’s strategy against the disturbing variants of SARS-CoV-2 appears to be effective for the booster vaccines’ development.