Vaccine fix can eliminate blood clots, scientists say

Scientists in Germany believe they have discovered why the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines can cause potentially fatal blood clots, and claim the issue can be fixed with a minor adjustment.

They say it is not the key component of the vaccines that cause clotting in rare cases, but a separate vector virus that is used to deliver them to the body.

Both the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson jabs use a modified adenovirus to deliver the spike protein of SarsCov2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

The scientists claim the delivery mechanism means the spike protein can reach the cell nucleus rather than the cellular fluid, creating mutant versions which do not bind to the membrane where immunisation takes place. Instead they are secreted into the body, where they can cause blood clots.

Dangerous clots in the brain have been recorded in 309 cases out of 33 million people who have received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK, and there have been 56 deaths.

But Professor Rolf Marschalek of Frankfurt’s Goethe University claims the issue can be fixed by modifying the spike protein to prevent it splitting.

“With the data we have in our hands we can tell the companies how to mutate these sequences, coding for the spike protein in a way that prevents unintended splice reactions,” he told the Financial Times .He said Johnson & Johnson had already been in contact with his lab about a potential fix but he had not spoken to AstraZeneca.

Professor Marschalek’s claims are only one of a number of hypotheses being explored on why the jabs cause blood clots in some people.

A rival German study, led by Professor Andreas Greinacher of Greifswald University Hospital, claimed the clots were being caused by EDTA, a chemical used as a preservative in the AstraZeneca vaccine. EDTA can cause cells in blood vessels to become “leaky”, causing platelets and proteins to flood through the body, triggering a massive immune reaction that can cause the blood clots.

“There is, in my opinion, rocksolid evidence,” Professor Greinacher said in April.

EDTA is not listed as an ingredient in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine but Professor Greinacher believes the phenomenon may be common to all vector vaccines.

A third German study at Ulm University Medical Centre claims unusually high levels of proteins in the AstraZeneca vaccine could be the problem.