Reduced binding and neutralization of infection- and vaccine-induced antibodies to the B.1.351 (South African) SARS-CoV-2 variant.

Journal: BioRxiv : The Preprint Server For Biology
Published:
Abstract

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants with mutations in the spike protein is raising concerns about the efficacy of infection- or vaccine-induced antibodies to neutralize these variants. We compared antibody binding and live virus neutralization of sera from naturally infected and spike mRNA vaccinated individuals against a circulating SARS-CoV-2 B.1 variant and the emerging B.1.351 variant. In acutely-infected (5-19 days post-symptom onset), convalescent COVID-19 individuals (through 8 months post-symptom onset) and mRNA-1273 vaccinated individuals (day 14 post-second dose), we observed an average 4.3-fold reduction in antibody titers to the B.1.351-derived receptor binding domain of the spike protein and an average 3.5-fold reduction in neutralizing antibody titers to the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 variant as compared to the B.1 variant (spike D614G). However, most acute and convalescent sera from infected and all vaccinated individuals neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 variant, suggesting that protective immunity is retained against COVID-19.

Authors
Venkata Edara, Carson Norwood, Katharine Floyd, Lilin Lai, Meredith Davis Gardner, William Hudson, Grace Mantus, Lindsay Nyhoff, Max Adelman, Rebecca Fineman, Shivan Patel, Rebecca Byram, Dumingu Gomes, Garett Michael, Hayatu Abdullahi, Nour Beydoun, Bernadine Panganiban, Nina Mcnair, Kieffer Hellmeister, Jamila Pitts, Joy Winters, Jennifer Kleinhenz, Jacob Usher, James O'keefe, Anne Piantadosi, Jesse Waggoner, Ahmed Babiker, David Stephens, Evan Anderson, Srilatha Edupuganti, Nadine Rouphael, Rafi Ahmed, Jens Wrammert, Mehul Suthar