![AstraZeneca & Janssen: where do thromboses come from? German researchers have an explanation](https://img.passeportsante.net/1000x526/2021-05-28/i107806-.jpeg)
Since the start of the vaccination campaign, cases of thrombosis have been associated with adenovirus vaccines, AstraZeneca & Janssen. Although rare, they can sometimes lead to death. German researchers have now succeeded in finding the origin of this phenomenon, explanations.
Adenovirus technology as the main culprit
For weeks, suspicions have been based on the adenovirus technology used by two vaccines, namely the British-Swedish vaccine, AstraZeneca and the American vaccine, Janssen or Johnson & Johnson. According to the Financial Times, which relays the results of a team of German scientists from Goethe University in Frankfurt, “Once inside the nucleus, parts of the protein (Spike protein) separate and create new versions, which cannot bind to the cell membrane, where a significant amount of immunization occurs“. Their study published on May 26 in the medical journal Research Square, details that these new proteins “Mutants” could move freely in the body instead of binding to the cell membrane, in order to initiate the process of immunization. It is also by moving that these mutations would break down or grow, giving rise to the formation of blood clots. “The viral piece of DNA […] is not optimized to be transcribed inside the nucleus, ”the scientists commented in their study.
This complication is almost non-existent with messenger RNA vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna), since the latter “Transport genetic material directly into the cell and never enter the nucleus”, say scientists. However, the researchers put it into perspective, the mutant proteins that are believed to be floating in the body trigger blood clots in about one in 100,000 people.
The laboratories concerned and German researchers in contact to solve the phenomenon
Despite the cases of thrombosis, the two vaccines are not doomed to disappear, quite the contrary. “With the data we have in hand, we can tell companies how to mutate these sequences, encoding the Spike protein in a way that prevents unintentional splicing reactions.”, entrusts the researcher Rolf Marschalek at the origin of this work, to the newspaper Financial Times. The Germans would already be in contact with the American laboratory Johnson & Johnson, in order “To optimize their vaccine”. However, no contact took place between the British-Swedish and the researchers. “If they contact me (AstraZeneca), I can tell them what to do to make a better vaccine”, boasts Rolf Marschalek.