Differential neutralization and inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 variants by antibodies elicited by COVID-19 mRNA vaccines
Li Wang, Markus H. Kainulainen, Nannan Jiang, Han Di, Gaston Bonenfant, Lisa Mills, Michael Currier, Punya Shrivastava-Ranjan, Brenda M. Calderon, Mili Sheth, Brian R. Mann, Jaber Hossain, Xudong Lin, Sandra Lester, Elizabeth A. Pusch, Joyce Jones, Dan Cui, Payel Chatterjee, M. Harley Jenks, Esther K. Morantz, Gloria P. Larson, Masato Hatta, Jennifer L. Harcourt, Azaibi Tamin, Yan Li, Ying Tao, Kun Zhao, Kristine A. Lacek, Ashley Burroughs, Wei Wang, Malania M. Wilson, Terianne Wong, Sohee Park, Suxiang Tong, John Barnes, Mark W. Tenforde, Wesley H. Self, Nathan I. Shapiro, Matthew C. Exline, D. Clark Files, Kevin W. Gibbs, David N. Hager, Manish Patel, Alison Laufer Halpin, Laura K. McMullan, Justin S. Lee, Hongjie Xia, Xuping Xie, Pei‐Yong Shi, C. Todd Davis, Christina F. Spiropoulou, Natalie J. Thornburg, M. Steven Oberste, Vivien G. Dugan, SSEV Bioinformatics Working Group, Dhwani Batra, Andrew S. Beck, Jason Caravas, Reina Chau, Roxana Cintrón, Peter W. Cook, Jonathan Gerhart, Christopher A. Gulvik, Norman Hassell, Dakota Howard, Kristen Knipe, Rebecca Kondor, Nicholas A. Kovacs, Kara A. Moser, Roopa Reddy-Nagilla, Clinton R. Paden, Benjamin L. Rambo‐Martin, Sandra Mathew, Matthew Schmerer, Samuel S. Shepard, Philip Shirk, Richard A. Stanton, Thomas Stark, Erisa Sula, Kendall Tymeckia, Yvette Unoarumhi, Voleti Subbalakshmi, Xiaoyu Zheng, David E. Wentworth, Bin Zhou
Abstract
The evolution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in the emergence of new variant lineages that have exacerbated the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of those variants were designated as variants of concern/interest (VOC/VOI) by national or international authorities based on many factors including their potential impact on vaccine-mediated protection from disease. To ascertain and rank the risk of VOCs and VOIs, we analyze the ability of 14 variants (614G, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, Mu, and Omicron) to escape from mRNA vaccine-induced antibodies. The variants show differential reductions in neutralization and replication by post-vaccination sera. Although the Omicron variant (BA.1, BA.1.1, and BA.2) shows the most escape from neutralization, sera collected after a third dose of vaccine (booster sera) retain moderate neutralizing activity against that variant. Therefore, vaccination remains an effective strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic.