Reduced neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 variant by convalescent and vaccine sera
Piyada Supasa, Daming Zhou, Wanwisa Dejnirattisai, Chang Liu, Alexander J. Mentzer, Helen M. Ginn, Yuguang Zhao, Helen M. E. Duyvesteyn, Rungtiwa Nutalai, Aekkachai Tuekprakhon, Beibei Wang, Guido C. Paesen, Jose Slon-Campos, César López‐Camacho, Bassam Hallis, Naomi S. Coombes, Kevin R. Bewley, Sue Charlton, Thomas S. Walter, Eleanor Barnes, Susanna Dunachie, Donal Skelly, Sheila Lumley, Natalie Baker, Imam Shaik, Holly E. Humphries, Kerry Godwin, Nick Gent, Alex Sienkiewicz, Christina Dold, Robert H. Levin, Tao Dong, Andrew J. Pollard, Julian C. Knight, Paul Klenerman, Derrick W. Crook, Teresa Lambe, Elizabeth Clutterbuck, Sagida Bibi, Amy Flaxman, Mustapha Bittaye, Sandra Belij‐Rammerstorfer, Sarah C. Gilbert, David R. Hall, Mark A. Williams, Neil G. Paterson, William James, Miles W. Carroll, Elizabeth E. Fry, Juthathip Mongkolsapaya, Jingshan Ren, David I. Stuart, Gavin Screaton
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 has caused over 2 million deaths in little over a year. Vaccines are being deployed at scale, aiming to generate responses against the virus spike. The scale of the pandemic and error-prone virus replication is leading to the appearance of mutant viruses and potentially escape from antibody responses. Variant B.1.1.7, now dominant in the UK, with increased transmission, harbors 9 amino acid changes in the spike, including N501Y in the ACE2 interacting surface. We examine the ability of B.1.1.7 to evade antibody responses elicited by natural SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination. We map the impact of N501Y by structure/function analysis of a large panel of well-characterized monoclonal antibodies. B.1.1.7 is harder to neutralize than parental virus, compromising neutralization by some members of a major class of public antibodies through light-chain contacts with residue 501. However, widespread escape from monoclonal antibodies or antibody responses generated by natural infection or vaccination was not observed.