Improved neutralization of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant after Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine boosting

In late November 2021, the World Health Organization declared the SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.529 the fifth variant of concern, Omicron. This variant has acquired 15 mutations in the receptor binding domain of the spike protein, raising concerns that Omicron could evade naturally acquired and vaccine-d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:bioRxiv 2022-08
Main Authors: Basile, Kerri, Rockett, Rebecca J, Mcphie, Kenneth, Fennell, Michael, Johnson-Mackinnon, Jessica, Agius, Jessica, Fong, Winkie, Rahman, Hossinur, Ko, Danny, Donavan, Linda, Hueston, Linda, Lam, Connie, Arnott, Alicia, Chen, Sharon, Maddocks, Susan, O'sullivan, Matthew, Dwyer, Dominic E, Vitali Sintchenko, Kok, Jen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
COVID-19 vaccines
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Spike protein
Vaccines
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Summary:In late November 2021, the World Health Organization declared the SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.529 the fifth variant of concern, Omicron. This variant has acquired 15 mutations in the receptor binding domain of the spike protein, raising concerns that Omicron could evade naturally acquired and vaccine-derived immunity. We utilized an authentic virus, multicycle neutralisation assay to demonstrate that sera collected 1, 3, and 6 months post-two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 has a limited ability to neutralise SARS-CoV-2. However, four weeks after a third dose, neutralizing antibody titres are boosted. Despite this increase, neutralising antibody titres are reduced 4-fold for Omicron compared to lineage A.2.2 SARS-CoV-2. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Footnotes * corrections
DOI:10.1101/2021.12.12.472252