L. Stamatatos, J. Czartoski, Yu-Hsin Wan, L. Homad, V. Rubin, H. Glantz, M. Neradilek, Emilie Seydoux, M. Jennewein, A. MacCamy, Junli Feng, G. Mize, S. D. De Rosa, A. Finzi, M. Lemos, K. Cohen, Z. Moodie, M. McElrath, A. McGuire
Science, 2021
Boosterism could save lives Postinfection immune protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 reinfection is not fully understood. It will be devastating if waves of new variants emerge that undermine natural immune protection. Stamatatos et al. investigated immune responsiveness 4 to 8 months after previously infected individuals were given a messenger RNA–based vaccine developed for the original Wuhan variant (see the Perspective by Crotty). Before vaccination, postinfection serum antibody neutralization responses to virus variants were variable and weak. Vaccination elevated postinfection serum-neutralizing capacity approximately 1000-fold against Wuhan-Hu-1 and other strains, and serum neutralization against the variant B.1.351 was enhanced. Although responses were relatively muted against the variant, they still showed characteristic memory responses. Vaccination with the Wuhan-Hu-1 variant may thus offer a valuable boost to protective responses against subsequent infection with variant viruses. Science, abg9175, this issue p. 1413; see also abj2258, p. 1392 Previous infection results in enhanced vaccine-induced immune protection against variant B.1.351 and other variants. Emerging severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants have raised concerns about resistance to neutralizing antibodies elicited by previous infection or vaccination. We examined whether sera from recovered and naïve donors, collected before and after immunizations with existing messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, could neutralize the Wuhan-Hu-1 and B.1.351 variants. Prevaccination sera from recovered donors neutralized Wuhan-Hu-1 and sporadically neutralized B.1.351, but a single immunization boosted neutralizing titers against all variants and SARS-CoV-1 by up to 1000-fold. Neutralization was a result of antibodies targeting the receptor binding domain and was not boosted by a second immunization. Immunization of naïve donors also elicited cross-neutralizing responses but at lower titers. Our study highlights the importance of vaccinating both uninfected and previously infected persons to elicit cross-variant neutralizing antibodies.
Cited by 74 publications.
Field of study: Medicine