Vaccine cocktail enables better antibody response: AIG study
Mix and match of different vaccines is safe and brings out robust antibody responses, said a study conducted by AIG Hospitals.
This is the first pilot study from India to determine the safety of mixing Covishield and Covaxin along with checking the antibody response. The most important finding of the study was that the spike-protein neutralising antibodies found in the mixed vaccine groups were higher than the same-vaccine groups.
Dr D. Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman, AIG Hospitals who was among the researchers, said, “Spikeprotein neutralising antibodies are the ones which kills the virus and reduces the overall infectivity. We found that when the first and second doses are of different vaccines, the spikeprotein antibody response is four times higher compared to two-dose of the same vaccine. They will enhance the vaccines’ effectiveness even against the Omicron variant.” As part of the study, 330 healthy volunteers who have not been vaccinated and had no history of Covid infection were selected and screened for SARCS-CoV-2 antibodies. Of them, 44 were found to be sero-negative which means they did not have Covid-related antibodies. “Around 87 per cent of participants who did not get vaccinated and never tested positive for Covid had the Covid-related antibodies. This means our population might have developed significant antibodies against Covid because of the huge Delta wave that we endured,” said Dr Reddy.
The 44 participants were divided into two four groups.
While group 1 and 2 took two doses of Covishield and Covaxin, group 3 and 4 took 2 doses of mixed vaccination.
They were followed for 60 days to check for any adverse effects.
The study conclusively showed that mixing of vaccines is absolutely safe as none of the participants developed any adverse effects.