Gamaleya Center will test the effectiveness of Sputnik against new strains of coronavirus

The spread of new COVID-19 strains in Asia is worrying, Alexander Gintsburg, director of the N.F. Gamalei National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, told Izvestia. At the same time, it is impossible to say exactly how effective the Sputnik V vaccine will be against them without additional research, since many antigenic changes have recently occurred with the virus.

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According to the scientist, the updated Sputnik was created in 2023. And when the last time the institute tested the neutralizing ability of the vaccine to topical variants of the pathogen, its significant decrease was already recorded.

"I do not know how the vaccine will work against the strains that are currently spreading in Asia. For two years now, we have not carried out an assessment of Sputnik V virus neutralization to new varieties of coronavirus. There is no antigenic update. However, as an initiative, we decided to investigate how the vaccine's antibodies protect against common subspecies in Russia and, if necessary, to change the antigenic composition of the drug," said Alexander Ginzburg.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, the vast majority of circulating genovariants in the Russian Federation still belong to JN.1, of which LF is considered the dominant subtype.7. The JN line.1 also remains dominant worldwide.

Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:

Covid Persistence: Gamalea Center to test Sputnik's effectiveness against new strains