Immunogenicity of standard and extended dosing intervals of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine.

Payne, Rebecca P; Longet, Stephanie; Austin, James A; Skelly, Donal T; Dejnirattisai, Wanwisa; Adele, Sandra; Meardon, Naomi; Faustini, Sian et al. · Cell · 2021

prospective_cohort · Level II

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Abstract

Extension of the interval between vaccine doses for the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine was introduced in the United Kingdom to accelerate population coverage with a single dose. At this time, trial data were lacking, and we addressed this in a study of United Kingdom healthcare workers. The first vaccine dose induced protection from infection from the circulating alpha (B.1.1.7) variant over several weeks. In a substudy of 589 individuals, we show that this single dose induces severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) neutralizing antibody (NAb) responses and a sustained B and T cell response to the spike protein. NAb levels were higher after the extended dosing interval (6-14 weeks) compared with the conventional 3- to 4-week regimen, accompanied by enrichment of CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells expressing interleukin-2 (IL-2). Prior SARS-CoV-2 infection amplified and accelerated the response. These data on dynamic cellular and humoral responses indicate that extension of the dosing interval is an effective immunogenic protocol.

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