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. 2025 Apr 15;231(4):1069-1073.
doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiae515.

Monkeypox Virus Infection Stimulates a More Robust and Durable Neutralizing Antibody Response Compared to Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara Vaccination

Christopher N Selverian  1 , Stephanie R Monticelli  2   3 , Yakin M Jaleta  1 , Gorka Lasso  1 , Megan E DeMouth  1 , Annalisa Meola  4 , Jacob Berrigan  1 , Thomas G Batchelor  2   5 , Leandro Battini  4 , Pablo Guardado-Calvo  4 , Andrew S Herbert  2 , Kartik Chandran  1 , Eric Meyerowitz  6   7 , Emily Happy Miller  1   7
Affiliations

Monkeypox Virus Infection Stimulates a More Robust and Durable Neutralizing Antibody Response Compared to Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara Vaccination

Christopher N Selverian et al. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Monkeypox virus (MPXV) has recently caused a global disease outbreak in humans. Differences in the neutralizing antibody response to vaccination versus MPXV infection remain poorly understood. Here, we examined the neutralization of MPXV and vaccinia virus by sera from a cohort of convalescent and vaccinated individuals at 1 and 8 months postexposure. Convalescent individuals displayed higher neutralizing antibody titers against MPXV than vaccinated and MPXV-naive persons at 1 month postexposure. Neutralizing antibody titers had waned significantly in both groups at 8 months. This study suggests that additional vaccine strategies are needed to elicit a durable humoral response and prevent breakthrough infections.

Keywords: humoral immunity; mpox; neutralizing antibodies; orthopoxviruses; vaccine response.

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Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflicts of interest. K. C. holds shares in Integrum Scientific, LLC, and Eitr Biologics Inc. All other authors report no potential conflicts of interest. All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed.

Supplementary concepts