A new study in Argentina on Sputnik V: “Our observations suggest that protection increases over 6 months following vaccination as a consequence of antibody maturation, resulting in improved potency of antibodies to viral escape mutations.”

A new study in Argentina on Sputnik V: “Our observations suggest that protection increases over 6 months following vaccination as a consequence of antibody maturation, resulting in improved potency of antibodies to viral escape mutations.”

Moscow, August 25, 2021 – The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund) announces results of a study in Argentina with authors noting that protection against coronavirus increases over 6 months following vaccination with the Russian Sputnik V vaccine as a consequence of antibody maturation, resulting in improved potency of antibodies to viral escape mutations.

The study results were summarized in an article published in medRxiv (the preprint server for health sciences) and are available at:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.22.21262186v1

Authors of the study, including Maria M. Gonzalez Lopez Ledesma, Lautaro Sanchez, Diego S. Ojeda, Santiago Oviedo Rouco, Andres H. Rossi, Augusto Varesse, Ignacio Mazzitelli, Carla A. Pascuale, Esteban A. Miglietta, Pamela E. Rodriguez, Horacio M. Pallares, Guadalupe S. Costa Navarro, Julio J. Caramelo, Paul W. Rothlauf, Zhouming Liu et al. examined the longitudinal antibody responses and viral neutralizing capacity to Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta variant and a broadly spread Lambda variant of interest in volunteers up to 6 months after receiving the Sputnik V vaccine in Argentina. A collection of 1,800 serum samples obtained between January and August 2021 was used.

As noted in the study, a significant increase (p<0.001) in the neutralizing potency index (NPI) was observed at 120 days (NPI=0.33; CI95%, 0.24–0.44) compared with the values observed at 42 days after vaccination (NPI=0.15; CI95%, 0.11–0.19).

As many countries are looking for a vaccine that can protect over a longer period of time, Sputnik V's study in Argentina is the key to illustrate the longer duration of immunity elicited by the Russian vaccine.

Sputnik V has a number of key advantages:

·        Efficacy of Sputnik V is 97.6% based on the analysis of data on the coronavirus infection rate among those in Russia vaccinated with both components of Sputnik V from December 5, 2020 to March 31, 2021;

·        The Sputnik V vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors, which cause the common cold and have been around for thousands of years.

·        Sputnik V has pioneered the use of heterogeneous boosting (two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination among COVID vaccines). This approach provides for immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots.

·        The safety, efficacy and lack of negative long-term effects of adenoviral vaccines have been proven by more than 250 clinical studies over two decades.

·        There are no strong allergies caused by Sputnik V.