Bivalent Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccine Antibody Responses to Omicron Variants Suggest That Responses to Divergent Variants Would Be Improved With Matched Vaccine Antigens
Wei Wang, Emilie Goguet, Stephanie Paz, Russell Vassell, Simon Pollett, Edward Mitre, Carol D. Weiss
Abstract
We compared neutralizing antibody responses to BA.4/5, BQ.1.1, XBB, and XBB.1.5 Omicron severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 variants after a bivalent or ancestral coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) messenger RNA booster vaccine or postvaccination infection. We found that the bivalent booster elicited moderately high antibody titers against BA.4/5 that were approximately 2-fold higher against all Omicron variants than titers elicited by the monovalent booster. The bivalent booster elicited low but similar titers against both XBB and XBB.1.5 variants. These findings inform risk assessments for future COVID-19 vaccine recommendations and suggest that updated COVID-19 vaccines containing matched vaccine antigens to circulating divergent variants may be needed.