The Effect of Vaccine Type and SARS-CoV-2 Lineage on Commercial SARS-CoV-2 Serologic and Pseudotype Neutralization Assays in mRNA Vaccine Recipients
Nicole V. Tolan, Amy C Sherman, Guohai Zhou, Katherine Nabel Smith, Michaël Desjardins, Stacy E.F. Melanson, Sanjat Kanjilal, Serina Moheed, John Kupelian, Richard M. Kaufman, Edward T. Ryan, Regina C. LaRocque, John A. Branda, Anand S. Dighe, Jonathan Abraham, Lindsey R. Baden, Richelle C. Charles, Sarah E. Turbett
Abstract
We evaluated anti-spike antibody concentrations in healthy mRNA vaccinated individuals and compared these concentrations to values obtained from pseudotype neutralization assays targeting SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern to determine how well anti-spike antibodies correlate with neutralizing titers, which have been used as a marker of immunity from COVID-19 infection. We found high peak anti-spike concentrations in these individuals, with significantly higher levels seen in mRNA-1273 vaccine recipients. When we compared anti-spike and pseudotype neuralization titers, we identified good correlation; however, this correlation was affected by both vaccine type and variant, illustrating the difficulty of applying a "one size fits all" approach to anti-spike result interpretation. Our results support CDC recommendations to discourage anti-spike antibody testing to assess for immunity after vaccination and cautions providers in their interpretations of these results as a surrogate of protection in COVID-vaccinated individuals.