April 23, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

AstraZeneca vaccine: scientists have found out what causes thrombosis

Scientists believe they have found a mechanism that leads to cases of thrombosis after vaccine administration AstraZeneca against coronavirus.

A team of scientists from Cardiff, Wales and the United States has shown in detail how a blood protein is attracted to a key component of the AstraZeneca vaccine: the mechanism of blood clots – a chain reaction.

The researchers believe that the mechanism they have found triggers a chain reaction in which the immune system is involved, which can eventually lead to the formation of dangerous clots. The vaccine is believed to have saved close to a million lives.

However, concerns about rare blood clots have led to the use of an alternative vaccine being offered to young people under 40 in the UK. A flurry of investigations has also been launched to understand what is happening and whether it can be prevented. A team from Cardiff received emergency government funding to find answers. AstraZeneca scientists also joined the research program after the team’s previous results were published.

An AstraZeneca spokesman said the clots were most likely caused by a coronavirus infection, not a vaccine, and that a full explanation of why they were present has not yet been established. “While the study is not conclusive, it provides interesting information, and AstraZeneca is exploring ways to use these results as part of our efforts to address this extremely rare * side effect,” he added.

For researchers examining blood clots, there were two initial indications:

The greatest risk of blood clots was observed only with some vaccine technologies. People with blood clots had unusual antibodies that attacked a protein in their blood called platelet factor 4.

All vaccines used in the United Kingdom try to pass part of the coronavirus’s genetic code into the body to train the immune system.

Is the answer in adenovirus?

Some pack this code in fat globules, while the AstraZeneca vaccine used an adenovirus (in particular, the chimpanzee’s cold virus) as a postman. Researchers have suggested that adenovirus may be associated with rare blood clots that occur in some people. So they used a technique called cryoelectron microscopy to photograph the adenovirus at the molecular level in detail.

Their study, published in the journal Science Advances, shows that the outer surface of adenovirus attracts the platelet factor 4 protein like a magnet. “The adenovirus has an extremely negative surface and the fourth platelet factor is extremely positive, and the two work well together,” Professor Alan Parker, a researcher at Cardiff University, told BBC News.

* The AstraZeneca vaccine was actively used in the European Union until April 2021. Then, after quite a few cases of thrombosis and death, from her refused

In the most Greece recommendations for the use of the drug AstraZeneca revised several times due to reported side effects. In February, the vaccine was recommended before the age of 64, but in June, the Greek National Vaccination Committee said it should not be used for people under 60. And later, after numerous complaints and several deaths, her stopped using for vaccinations

Part of the stocks of this vaccine were donated to countries in Africa and Asia, and part to Ukrainewhere information about the consequences is deliberately hidden by the authorities.





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