Moscow psychiatrist Alexei Yakovlev, who received both doses of the domestic COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V, spoke about how quickly protective antibodies were produced after the drug was injected. In addition, the physician made a loud statement about a possible problem with the work of the vaccine - in his opinion, a number of signs may indicate that it has been working for a very short time, Uralinformbyuro reports.
The specialist said that on October 22 he received an injection of the second component of the vaccine from the Research Center of Gamaleya. He evaluated the production of antibodies using English test systems. According to the doctor, when working with patients, they did not misfire.
By the end of the second week after the first dose, no antibodies were found: "I was already beginning to worry," the doctor said.
“A week later, frail, but longed-for strokes dawned against both letters M and G (they appear in those who are ill at the moment and who have already been ill. The latter show the level of immunity tension. - Ed.). The last test strip showed that antibodies had accumulated, but their titer is still low (the intensity of the color of the lines correlates with the titles), "he said.
The dynamics of the appearance of antibodies: in the second and third tests, barely noticeable stripes are visible opposite G and M. Photo: Alexey Yakovlev
The physician stressed that he had no doubts that antibodies would appear after vaccination.
“I know from colleagues vaccinated in July that all, without exception, developed antibodies, and in good credits,” he said. At the same time, out of 25 vaccinated, according to his data, two fell ill already in October - one asymptomatic, the second with a "full range of symptoms."
Aleksey Yakovlev believes that when out of 25 vaccinated two fall ill (according to the author's data, colleagues did not receive a placebo "dummy", but participated in a full-fledged vaccination) problems in the work of the vaccine itself are outlined. "Here, either the grafted antibodies quickly" burn out ", or they are not neutralizing," he suggested.
"What do you mean" neutralizing "? The fact is that the production of antibodies to the protein from the peplomers of coronavirus (S-protein) is only half the battle. It is necessary that these antibodies also work against the pathogen, that is, they must neutralize it. the vaccine S-protein collected by our cells from the modified DNA of adenoviruses must have the same conformation as the S-protein on the capsid of the coronavirus itself, otherwise the antibodies produced simply will not neutralize this coronavirus (although they can be detected by ELISA tests and test strips) ", - the medic explained.
Photo: Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation
Aleksey himself is inclined to believe that the protective antibodies that appeared after the introduction of Sputnik still work, but quickly fade away.
"As a matter of fact, there is nothing unexpected in this. Even after suffering an acute respiratory viral infection caused by our banal coronaviruses, short-term immunity is developed, so that in experiments, experimental subjects infected with the same virus fell ill after six months, and with a detailed clinical picture. The vaccine, as a rule, gives even less stable immunity compared to the previous disease. Yes, those who have been ill with moderate and severe forms usually form more stable immunity: there IgG antibodies last up to 3-5 years, and long-term T-cell immunity accumulates, "he explained.
And after milder forms (and their overwhelming majority) and even more so after a vaccine (albeit a two-stage one), the acquired antibodies, according to the doctor, can fall below the protective level after a few months.