Two doses of the SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 vaccine enhance antibody responses to variants in individuals with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection



Urbanowicz, Richard A ORCID: 0000-0002-2461-4993, Tsoleridis, Theocharis, Jackson, Hannah J, Cusin, Lola, Duncan, Joshua D, Chappell, Joseph G, Tarr, Alexander W, Nightingale, Jessica, Norrish, Alan R, Ikram, Adeel
et al (show 9 more authors) (2021) Two doses of the SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 vaccine enhance antibody responses to variants in individuals with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE, 13 (609). eabj0847-.

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Abstract

Understanding the impact of prior infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on the response to vaccination is a priority for responding to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In particular, it is necessary to understand how prior infection plus vaccination can modulate immune responses against variants of concern. To address this, we sampled 20 individuals with and 25 individuals without confirmed previous SARS-CoV-2 infection from a large cohort of health care workers followed serologically since April 2020. All 45 individuals had received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine with a delayed booster at 10 weeks. Absolute and neutralizing antibody titers against wild-type SARS-CoV-2 and variants were measured using enzyme immunoassays and pseudotype neutralization assays. We observed antibody reactivity against lineage A, B.1.351, and P.1 variants with increasing antigenic exposure, through either vaccination or natural infection. This improvement was further confirmed in neutralization assays using fixed dilutions of serum samples. The impact of antigenic exposure was more evident in enzyme immunoassays measuring SARS-CoV-2 spike protein–specific IgG antibody concentrations. Our data show that multiple exposures to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in the context of a delayed booster expand the neutralizing breadth of the antibody response to neutralization-resistant SARS-CoV-2 variants. This suggests that additional vaccine boosts may be beneficial in improving immune responses against future SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Humans, Antibody Formation, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 Vaccines, BNT162 Vaccine
Divisions: Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 10 Sep 2021 13:10
Last Modified: 18 Jan 2023 21:28
DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abj0847
Open Access URL: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.a...
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URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3136634