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Say that Pfizer were able to simulate 50 possible mutations and put all of them into a single vaccine, would there be any risk that the antibodies could interac

Say that Pfizer were able to simulate 50 possible mutations and put all of them into a single vaccine, would there be any risk that the antibodies could interact with each other in some way that makes the vaccines less effective? Also another scenario: say that we get yearly Covid shots that contain the latest strains, would these accumulate over the years and start interacting with each other?

Retric 6y ago
As I understand it, the second isn’t an issue so 50 vaccines over 50 years would be fine, that’s how seasonal flu vaccines are done. The first is mostly a question of how similar they are. Best case original vaccine covers all strains without modification, worst case you need 50 different vaccines. But the most likely combination is a mix where you might need say 5 vaccines, each of which over an overlapping subset of the 50 strains to various degrees of effectiveness.
- danarmak 6y ago
  The immune system presumably has a limited capacity of circulating antibodies. By introducing new antibodies, do we reduce the amount of previous antibodies, and does this reduce their immune response? Is there a concept or metric of "antibody dilution"?
  - Retric 6y ago
    Antibody production ramps up and down rapidly, it’s memory cells that get altered by vaccines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunological_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunological_memory That said the immune system is extremely complex, but here is a simplified version, which gives a reasonable overview: https://microbenotes.com/cells-of-the-immune-system/ https://microbenotes.com/cells-of-the-immune-system/
  - dannyw 6y ago
    While correlation is not causation, I find it interesting that the human immune system only remembers the common cold and seasonal influenza for several months, but diseases like the polio for much longer. https://biology.stackexchange.com/a/21802 https://biology.stackexchange.com/a/21802
    - TylerE 6y ago
      "The common cold" is a loose nebula of hundreds of different, unrelated, virus strains. They're not even all the same TYPE of virus.

Retric 6y ago

As I understand it, the second isn’t an issue so 50 vaccines over 50 years would be fine, that’s how seasonal flu vaccines are done. The first is mostly a question of how similar they are. Best case original vaccine covers all strains without modification, worst case you need 50 different vaccines. But the most likely combination is a mix where you might need say 5 vaccines, each of which over an overlapping subset of the 50 strains to various degrees of effectiveness.

danarmak 6y ago
The immune system presumably has a limited capacity of circulating antibodies. By introducing new antibodies, do we reduce the amount of previous antibodies, and does this reduce their immune response? Is there a concept or metric of "antibody dilution"?
- Retric 6y ago
  Antibody production ramps up and down rapidly, it’s memory cells that get altered by vaccines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunological_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunological_memory That said the immune system is extremely complex, but here is a simplified version, which gives a reasonable overview: https://microbenotes.com/cells-of-the-immune-system/ https://microbenotes.com/cells-of-the-immune-system/
- dannyw 6y ago
  While correlation is not causation, I find it interesting that the human immune system only remembers the common cold and seasonal influenza for several months, but diseases like the polio for much longer. https://biology.stackexchange.com/a/21802 https://biology.stackexchange.com/a/21802
  - TylerE 6y ago
    "The common cold" is a loose nebula of hundreds of different, unrelated, virus strains. They're not even all the same TYPE of virus.