The Effect of Vaccine Type and SARS-CoV-2 Lineage on Commercial SARS-CoV-2 Serologic and Pseudotype Neutralization Assays in mRNA Vaccine Recipients

• Published in: Microbiology spectrum 2022-04, Vol.10 (2), p.e0021122-e0021122
• Main Authors: Tolan, Nicole V, Sherman, Amy C, Zhou, Guohai, Nabel, Katherine G, Desjardins, Michaël, Melanson, Stacy, Kanjilal, Sanjat, Moheed, Serina, Kupelian, John, Kaufman, Richard M, Ryan, Edward T, LaRocque, Regina C, Branda, John A, Dighe, Anand S, Abraham, Jonathan, Baden, Lindsey R, Charles, Richelle C, Turbett, Sarah E
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 2019-nCoV Vaccine mRNA-1273; Adult; Antibodies, Neutralizing; Antibodies, Viral; BNT162 Vaccine; Clinical Microbiology; COVID-19 - diagnosis; COVID-19 - prevention & control; COVID-19 Vaccines; Humans; immunogenicity; mRNA Vaccines; Research Article; SARS-CoV-2 - genetics; serology; Vaccines, Synthetic
• ISSN: 2165-0497; 2165-0497
• DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.00211-22

The use of anti-spike (S) serologic assays as surrogate measurements of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine induced immunity will be an important clinical and epidemiological tool. The characteristics of a commercially available anti-S antibody assay (Roche Elecsys anti-SARS-CoV-2 S) were evaluated in a cohort of vaccine recipients. Levels were correlated with pseudotype neutralizing antibodies (NAb) across SARS-CoV-2 variants. We recruited adults receiving a two-dose series of mRNA-1273 or BNT162b2 and collected serum at scheduled intervals up to 8 months post-first vaccination. Anti-S and NAb levels were measured, and correlation was evaluated by (i) vaccine type and (ii) SARS-CoV-2 variant (wild-type, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and three constructs Day 146*, Day 152*, and RBM-2). Forty-six mRNA vaccine recipients were enrolled. mRNA-1273 vaccine recipients had higher peak anti-S and NAb levels compared with BNT162b2 (