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. 2021 May 18;9(5):517.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines9050517.

Neutralizing Antibody Response of Vaccinees to SARS-CoV-2 Variants

Gabriele Anichini  1 , Chiara Terrosi  1 , Gianni Gori Savellini  1 , Claudia Gandolfo  1 , Federico Franchi  2 , Maria Grazia Cusi  1
Affiliations

Neutralizing Antibody Response of Vaccinees to SARS-CoV-2 Variants

Gabriele Anichini et al. Vaccines (Basel). .

Abstract

Due to their increased transmissibility, three variants of high concern have emerged in the United Kingdom (also known as B.1.1.7 lineage or VOC-202012/01), South Africa (B.1.351 lineage), and Brazil (P1 lineage) with multiple substitutions in the spike protein. Since neutralizing antibodies elicited by vaccination are likely considered as correlates of protection for SARS-CoV-2 infection, it is important to analyze whether vaccinees with mRNA BNT162b2 are equally protected against these emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. To this aim, we enrolled healthy subjects one month after complete vaccination with Comirnaty and evaluated the neutralizing response against the native Wuhan strain and the emerging B.1.1.7, B.1.351 and P1 lineages, by using the microneutralization assay, currently considered the gold standard test for the evaluation and detection of functional neutralizing antibodies. The most remarkable finding of this study was the significantly lower neutralizing antibody titer against B.1.351 lineage, compared to the wild-type virus. No significant differences were observed with the other two lineages. These findings provide evidence that vaccinated subjects may not be equally protected against all SARS-CoV-2 lineages.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; neutralizing antibody; vaccine; variants.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Viral cytopathic effect (CPE) (b) observed in cultured Vero E6 cells after infection with 100 TCID of the SARS-CoV-2 strain. (a) shows the uninfected control cells. (Magnification 400×).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Differences in neutralizing antibody titers among vaccinated subjects against the wild-type, B.1.1.7, B.1.351, and P.1 SARS-CoV-2 lineages thirty days after receiving the second dose of vaccine. Results are reported in the box−whiskers plots as GMTs and upper and lower quartiles. GMT, geometric mean titer.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Regression analysis of neutralizing antibody titers against the wild-type (green, R2 = −0.12), B.1.1.7 (blue, R2 = −0.09), P.1 (red, R2 = −0.07) and B.1.351 lineages (black, R2 = −0.11), according to subjects’ age.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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