Two doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination induce robust immune responses to emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern
Donal Skelly, Adam Harding, Javier Gilbert‐Jaramillo, Michael L. Knight, Stéphanie Longet, Anthony Brown, Sandra Adele, Emily Adland, Helen Brown, Senthil Chinnakannan, Timothy Donnison, Mohammad Ali, Patpong Rongkard, Matthew Pace, Peny Zacharopoulou, Nicola Robinson, Anna Csala, Cathy De Lara, Claire Hutchings, Hema Mehta, Lian Ni Lee, Matthew Edmans, Carl-Philipp Hackstein, Prabhjeet Phalora, Wenqin Li, Eloise Phillips, Tom Malone, Ane Ogbe, Cecilia Jay, Timothy Tipoe, Tom Tipton, Lizzie Stafford, Alexander J. Mentzer, Síle A. Johnson, Ali Amini, Thomas Marjot, Stavros Dimitriadis, Beatrice Simmons, Alexandra Deeks, Sven Kerneis, Hibatullah Abuelgasim, Robert Wilson, Sarah Thomas, Adam Watson, Ahmed Alhussni, Joseph Cutteridge, Esme Weeks, Lucy Denly, Katy Lillie, Jennifer Holmes, Philippa C. Matthews, Denise O’Donnell, Tiong Kit Tan, Lisa Schimanski, Kuan-Ying A. Huang, Pramila Rijal, PITCH (Protective Immunity T cells in Health Care Worker) Study Group, Lance Turtle, Thushan I. de Silva, Alex Richter, C.J. Duncan, Rebecca Payne, Shona C. Moore, C-MORE/PHOSP-C Group, Julian C. Knight, Mark Philip Cassar, Betty Raman, Stefan Neubauer, Anastasia Fries, Nick P. Talbot, Nayia Petousi, Ling‐Pei Ho, Yanchun Peng, Tao Dong, Susana Camara, Spyridoula Marinou, Aline Linder, Syed Adlou, Mwila Kasanyinga, Alice Bridges-Webb, Jennifer Hill, Laura Silva-Reyes, Luke Blackwell, John Frater, Philip Goulder, Christopher P. Conlon, Katie Jeffery, Christina Dold, Andrew J. Pollard, Alex Sigal, Túlio de Oliveira, Alain Townsend, Paul Klenerman, Susanna Dunachie, Eleanor Barnes, Miles W. Carroll, William James
Abstract
The extent to which immune responses to natural infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and immunization with vaccines protect against variants of concern (VOC) is of increasing importance. Accordingly, here we analyse antibodies and T cells of a recently vaccinated, UK cohort, alongside those recovering from natural infection in early 2020. We show that neutralization of the VOC compared to a reference isolate of the original circulating lineage, B, is reduced: more profoundly against B.1.351 than for B.1.1.7, and in responses to infection or a single dose of vaccine than to a second dose of vaccine. Importantly, high magnitude T cell responses are generated after two vaccine doses, with the majority of the T cell response directed against epitopes that are conserved between the prototype isolate B and the VOC. Vaccination is required to generate high potency immune responses to protect against these and other emergent variants.