Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Aug 4;8(1):110.
doi: 10.1038/s41541-023-00708-9.

Bivalent COVID-19 mRNA booster vaccination (BA.1 or BA.4/BA.5) increases neutralization of matched Omicron variants

David N Springer  1 , Michael Bauer  1 , Iris Medits  1 , Jeremy V Camp  1 , Stephan W Aberle  1 , Clemens Burtscher  2 , Eva Höltl  2   3 , Lukas Weseslindtner  1 , Karin Stiasny #  4 , Judith H Aberle #  5
Affiliations

Bivalent COVID-19 mRNA booster vaccination (BA.1 or BA.4/BA.5) increases neutralization of matched Omicron variants

David N Springer et al. NPJ Vaccines. .

Abstract

We report SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody titers in sera of triple-vaccinated individuals who received a booster dose of an original monovalent or a bivalent BA.1- or BA.4/BA.5-adapted vaccine or had a breakthrough infection with Omicron variants BA.1, BA.2 or BA.4/BA.5. A bivalent BA.4/BA.5 booster or Omicron-breakthrough infection induced increased Omicron-neutralization titers compared with the monovalent booster. The XBB.1.5 variant effectively evaded neutralizing-antibody responses elicited by current vaccines and/or infection with previous variants.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Serum-neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 variants of vaccinated or breakthrough-infection cohorts.
a NT titers of sera from individuals 3–4 weeks after a third or fourth dose of monovalent mRNA vaccines (V1/V2/V3-monovalent, V1/V2/V3/V4-monovalent), or bivalent-BA.1- or BA.4/BA.5-based mRNA vaccines (V1/V2/V3/V4-bivalent-BA.1, V1/V2/V3/V4-bivalent-BA.5). b NT titers at baseline (day 0, pre-V4) and after bivalent-BA.1 or BA.4/BA.5 booster vaccination (3–4 weeks, post-V4). c NT titers of sera from individuals with breakthrough infection with Omicron BA.1, BA.2 or BA.4/BA.5, following 2–4 doses of mRNA vaccines. Boxes range from 25th to 75th percentile, whiskers show min and max, and horizontal lines the median. BTI breakthrough infection. NT titers were compared with Kruskal–Wallis test with Dunn’s multiple comparison correction. Paired data were analyzed with Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test followed by Bonferroni correction. ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Antigenic maps and cumulative distance scores of SARS-CoV-2 variants for vaccinated and breakthrough-infection cohorts.
a Antigenic maps of SARS-CoV-2 variants based on post-vaccination (V1/V2/V3-monovalent, n = 31; V1/V2/V3/V4-monovalent, n = 26; V1/V2/V3/V4-bivalent-BA.1, n = 12; V1/V2/V3/V4-bivalent-BA.5, n = 22) and Omicron breakthrough-infection sera, including subvariants BA.1, BA.2 and BA.4/BA.5 (n = 22). Squares represent individual sera, circles SARS-CoV-2 variants. The x- and y-axes of the maps are antigenic distances, and each square represents a twofold change in neutralization titer. b Cumulative antigenic distance scores. Boxes range from 25th to 75th percentile, whiskers show min and max, and horizontal lines the median. BTI breakthrough infection. Scores were compared with Kruskal–Wallis tests with Dunn’s multiple comparison correction. ****p < 0.0001, ***p < 0.001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Barouch DH. Covid-19 vaccines—immunity, variants, boosters. N. Engl. J. Med. 2022;387:1011–1020. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra2206573. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Medits I, et al. Different neutralization profiles after primary SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 infections. Front. Immunol. 2022;13:946318. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.946318. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lin DY, et al. Effectiveness of bivalent boosters against severe Omicron infection. N. Engl. J. Med. 2023;388:764–766. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc2215471. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Link-Gelles R CA, et al. Effectiveness of bivalent mRNA vaccines in preventing symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection—Increasing Community Access to Testing Program, United States, September–November 2022. MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. 2022;71:1526–1530. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7148e1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Addetia, A. et al. Therapeutic and vaccine-induced cross-reactive antibodies with effector function against emerging Omicron variants. Preprint at bioRxiv10.1101/2023.01.17.523798 (2023).