Neutralization of VOCs including Delta one year post COVID-19 or vaccine

 Sebastian Havervall, Ulrika Marking, Max Gordon, Henry Ng, Nina Greilert-Norin, Sarah Lindbo, Kim Blom, Peter Nilsson, Mia Phillipson, Jonas Klingstrom, Sara Mangsbo, Mikael Aberg, Sophia Hober, Charlotte Thalin

doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.12.21261951

This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review [what does this mean?]. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice.

PDF: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.12.21261951v1.full.pdf

Abstract

Background: SARS-CoV-2 variants, such as Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, are raising concern about the efficiency of neutralizing antibodies (NAb) induced by wild-type infection or vaccines based on the wild-type spike. Methods: We determined IgG and NAb against SARS-CoV-2 variants one year following mild wild-type infection (n=104) and two-dose regimens with BNT162b2 (BNT/BNT) (n=67), ChAdOx1 (ChAd/ChAd) (n=82), or heterologous ChAdOx1 followed by BNT162b2 (ChAd/BNT) (n=116). Findings: Wild type spike IgG and NAb remained detectable in 80% (83/104) of unvaccinated participants one year post mild infection. The neutralizing capacity was similar against wild type (reference), Alpha (0.95 (0.92-0.98) and Delta 1.03 (0.95-1.11) but significantly reduced against Beta (0.54 (0.48-0.60)) and Gamma 0.51 (0.44-0.61). Similarly, BNT/BNT and ChAd/ChAd elicited sustained capacity against Alpha and Delta (1.01 (0.78-1.31) and 1.03 (0.95-1.11)) and (0.96 (0.84-1.09) and 0.82 (0.61-1.10) respectively), with reduced capacity against Beta (0.67 (0.50-0.88) and 0.53 (0.40-0.71)) and Gamma (0.12 (0.06-0.27) and 0.54 (0.37-0.80)). A similar trend was found following ChAd/BNT (0.74 (0.66-0.83) and 0.70 (0.50-0.97) against Alpha and Delta and 0.29 (0.20-0.42) and 0.13 (0.08-0.20) against Beta and Gamma). Interpretation: Persistent neutralization of the wide-spread Alpha and Delta variants one year after wild-type infection may aid vaccine policy makers in low-resource settings when prioritizing vaccine supply. The reduced capacity of neutralizing Beta and Gamma strains, but not the Alpha and Delta strains following both infection and three different vaccine regimens argues for caution against Beta and Gamma-exclusive mutations in the efforts to optimize next generation SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Funding: A full list of funding bodies that contributed to this study can be found in the Acknowledgements section

Competing Interest Statement

SoH has participated on Astra Zeneca COVID-19 SCG Virtual Advisory Board. Otherwise, the authors declare no competing interests.

Funding Statement

This work was funded by Jonas & Christina af Jochnick foundation; Lundblad family foundation; Region Stockholm; Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation; Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab); Erling-Persson family foundation; CIMED and the Swedish Research Council.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.12.21261951v1