Determinants of protection against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 and Delta infections in fully vaccinated outpatients

Abstract

We aimed to evaluate the association between the humoral and cellular immune responses and symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection with Delta or Omicron BA.1 variants in fully vaccinated outpatients. Anti-receptor binding domain (RBD) IgG levels and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) release were evaluated at PCR-diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 in 636 samples from negative and positive patients during Delta and Omicron BA.1 periods. Median levels of anti-RBD IgG in positive patients were significantly lower than in negative patients for both variants (p < 0.05). The frequency of Omicron BA.1 infection in patients with anti-RBD IgG concentrations ≥1000 binding antibody units (BAU)/mL was 51.0% and decreased to 34.4% in patients with concentrations ≥3000 BAU/mL. For Delta infection, the frequency of infection was significantly lower when applying the same anti-RBD IgG thresholds (13.3% and 5.3% respectively, p < 0.05). In addition, individuals in the hybrid immunity group had a 4.5 times lower risk of Delta infection compared to the homologous vaccination group (aOR = 0.22, 95% CI: [0.05-0.64]. No significant decrease in the risk of Omicron BA.1 infection was observed in the hybrid group compared to the homologous group, but the risk decreased within the hybrid group as anti-RBD IgG titers increased (aOR = 0.08, 95% CI: [0.01-0.41], p = 0.008). IFN-γ release post-SARS-CoV-2 peptide stimulation was not different between samples from patients infected (either with Delta or Omicron BA.1 variant) or not (p > 0.05). Our results show that high circulating levels of anti-RBD IgG and hybrid immunity were independently associated with a lower risk of symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in outpatients with differences according to the infecting variant (www.clinicaltrials.gov; ID NCT05060939).

Keywords: Delta; Omicron BA.1; SARS-CoV-2; anti-RBD IgG; correlates of protection.