An article on the vaccine Sputnik Light's neutralising antibody response to the Omicron strain has been published on medRxiv, a preprint server for health sciences, the Gamaleya National Research Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund announced Wednesday.
According to the study, a Sputnik Light booster after Sputnik V vaccination demonstrates high virus neutralising activity (VNA) against the Omicron variant. The Sputnik Light booster has also proven to increase the effectiveness of vaccines other than Sputnik V, the paper notes.
12 December 2021, 17:35 GMT
Sputnik Light shows boosted virus-neutralising activity against Omicron, with 100% of individuals revaccinated with the jab developing antibodies and showing high levels of the said antibodies 2-3 months after inoculation, the article notes.
The research shows that virus neutralising activity (VNA) against Omicron 2-3 months after a Sputnik Light booster is higher than VNA against the wild-type virus six months after vaccination with Sputnik V.
The expected efficacy of Sputnik V with Sputnik Light booster against Omicron could be higher than 80%, according to the research.
The study indicates that Sputnik Light is expected to provide strong protection against infection, severe disease, and hospitalisation caused by Omicron.
Sputnik V is the world's first registered vaccine against COVID-19 and it has already been authorised in 71 countries with a total population of more than 4 billion people.
Sputnik Light has been registered in over 20 countries as a booster shot that can be used after other types of vaccines in such countries as Argentina, Bahrain, the UAE, San Marino, and the Philippines.
Both vaccines were developed on the human adenovirus vector platform, which has been in widespread use in immunology over the past three decades.