Emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern evade humoral immune responses from infection and vaccination.
prospective_cohort · Level II
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34516917.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.abj5365 and PMC identifier 8442901.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) pose a threat to human immunity induced by natural infection and vaccination. We assessed the recognition of three VOCs (B.1.1.7, B.1.351, and P.1) in cohorts of COVID-19 convalescent patients (<i>n</i> = 69) and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine recipients (<i>n</i> = 50). Spike binding and neutralization against all three VOCs were substantially reduced in most individuals, with the largest four- to sevenfold reduction in neutralization being observed against B.1.351. While hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and vaccinees maintained sufficient neutralizing titers against all three VOCs, 39% of nonhospitalized patients exhibited no detectable neutralization against B.1.351. Moreover, monoclonal neutralizing antibodies show sharp reductions in their binding kinetics and neutralizing potential to B.1.351 and P.1 but not to B.1.1.7. These data have implications for the degree to which pre-existing immunity can protect against subsequent infection with VOCs and informs policy makers of susceptibility to globally circulating SARS-CoV-2 VOCs.