Covishield immune responses against Covid variants higher than Covaxin: Study
The Hindu
Both vaccines elicited statistically significant antibody levels in both seronegative and seropositive individuals.
Neutralising antibody responses against the SARS-COV-2 virus and its variants of concern (VoC) are higher among Covishield recipients than those who took the indigenously made Covaxin, according to a multi-centre study.
The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study, posted on the preprint server medRxiv on Friday, also found that when compared to pre-vaccination baseline, both vaccines elicited statistically significant antibody levels in both seronegative individuals and seropositive or those who had recovered from Covid-19 infection.
Between June 2021 and January 2022, the researchers enrolled 691 participants in the 18-45 age group across four sites in urban and rural Bengaluru and Pune.
Participants received either two doses of Covaxin at 28 days apart or two doses of Covishield at three months apart.
The Omicron wave in early 2022 overlapped with the second dose of vaccine in two sites and with both doses in one site.
Participants were sampled at six timepoints for antibody analyses and at four timepoints for cellular analyses.
When compared to pre-vaccination baseline, both vaccines elicited statistically significant antibody levels in both seronegative and seropositive individuals, the researchers found.