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. 2024 Apr 2;42(9):2117-2121.
doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.03.007. Epub 2024 Mar 7.

Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariant BA.2.87.1

Ninaad Lasrado  1 , Annika Rössler  1 , Marjorie Rowe  1 , Ai-Ris Y Collier  1 , Dan H Barouch  2
Affiliations

Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariant BA.2.87.1

Ninaad Lasrado et al. Vaccine. .

Abstract

A new highly mutated Omicron subvariant BA.2.87.1 has recently been identified with over 30 amino acid mutations in the Spike protein compared with BA.2, BA.5, XBB.1.5, and JN.1 variants. Mutiple mutations in BA.2.87.1 are located in the N-terminal domain (NTD) rather than in the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the Spike protein. We evaluated neutralizing antibody (NAb) responses to BA.2.87.1 because of its highly mutated sequence and its unique NTD region. Our data show that NAb responses to BA.2.87.1 were lower than to BA.2 but higher than to JN.1, suggesting that BA.2.87.1 is not a further antibody escape variant compared with other currently circulating variants. Moreover, XBB.1.5 mRNA boosting increased NAb titers to all variants tested including BA.2.87.1.

Keywords: BA.2.87.1; Neutralizing antibody; Omicron; SARS-CoV-2; mRNA.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.. Spike mutations in BA.2.87.1 and current circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants.
Spike mutations in BA.2.87.1 and other SARS-CoV-2 variants. Substitutions in the BA.2, BA.5, XBB.1.5, HV.1, BA.2.86, JN.1, and BA.2.87.1 SARS-CoV-2 variants relative to the Wuhan/WIV04/ reference strain (https://gisaid.org/WIV04/) are shown. Amino acid substitutions are indicated in red tiles, and deletions in blue tiles. Substitutions found in BA.2.87.1 relative to BA.2 Omicron variants are highlighted in bold.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.. Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 variants following XBB.1.5 mRNA boosting.
(A) Neutralizing antibody (NAb) responses against the WA1/2020, BA.2, XBB.1.5, JN.1, and BA.2.87.1 variants by luciferase-based pseudovirus neutralization assays at baseline and at 3 weeks post-boost in 34 individuals who received an XBB.1.5 mRNA booster in Fall 2023. The horizontal red bar reflects median values. Dotted lines reflect limits of quantitation. (B) Longitudinal paired analysis of serum NAb titers against SARS-CoV-2 WA1/2020, BA.2, XBB.1.5, JN.1, and BA.2.87.1 variants before and after XBB.1.5 mRNA boosting by luciferase-based pseudovirus neutralization assays. Each individual dot represents a single participant (blue, baseline; red, week 3). Fold change increases in NAb titers are depicted numerically. Dotted lines reflect limits of quantitation.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.. Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 variants following Moderna or Pfizer XBB.1.5 mRNA boosting.
(A) Neutralizing antibody (NAb) responses against the WA1/2020, BA.2, XBB.1.5, JN.1, and BA.2.87.1 variants by luciferase-based pseudovirus neutralization assays at baseline and at 3 weeks post-boost in 21 individuals who received the Moderna XBB.1.5 mRNA booster in Fall 2023. The horizontal red bar reflects median values. Dotted lines reflect limits of quantitation. (B) NAb responses against the WA1/2020, BA.2, XBB.1.5, JN.1, and BA.2.87.1 variants by luciferase-based pseudovirus neutralization assays at baseline and at 3 weeks post-boost in 13 individuals who received the Pfizer XBB.1.5 mRNA booster in Fall 2023. The horizontal red bar reflects median values. Dotted lines reflect limits of quantitation.
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References

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