Neutralization against SARS-CoV-2 Delta/Omicron variants and B cell response after inactivated vaccination among COVID-19 convalescents

Abstract

Emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants have made COVID-19 convalescents susceptible to re-infection and have raised concern about the efficacy of inactivated vaccination in neutralization against emerging variants and antigen-specific B cell response. To this end, a study on a long-term cohort of 208 participants who have recovered from COVID-19 was conducted, and the participants were followed up at 3.3 (Visit 1), 9.2 (Visit 2), and 18.5 (Visit 3) months after SARS-CoV-2 infection. They were classified into three groups (no-vaccination (n = 54), one-dose (n = 62), and two-dose (n = 92) groups) on the basis of the administration of inactivated vaccination. The neutralizing antibody (NAb) titers against the wild-type virus continued to decrease in the no-vaccination group, but they rose significantly in the one-dose and two-dose groups, with the highest NAb titers being observed in the two-dose group at Visit 3. The NAb titers against the Delta variant for the no-vaccination, one-dose, and two-dose groups decreased by 3.3, 1.9, and 2.3 folds relative to the wild-type virus, respectively, and those against the Omicron variant decreased by 7.0, 4.0, and 3.8 folds, respectively. Similarly, the responses of SARS-CoV-2 RBD-specific B cells and memory B cells were boosted by the second vaccine dose. Results showed that the convalescents benefited from the administration of the inactivated vaccine (one or two doses), which enhanced neutralization against highly mutated SARS-CoV-2 variants and memory B cell responses. Two doses of inactivated vaccine among COVID-19 convalescents are therefore recommended for the prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic, and vaccination guidelines and policies need to be updated.

Keywords

COVID-19 convalescent / SARS-CoV-2 / inactivated vaccination / neutralizing antibody / B cell response

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the study participants and project staff. This work was supported by the Emergency Key Program of Guangzhou Laboratory (No. EKPG21-30), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2019kfyXMBZ015), the Fellowship of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Nos. 2020T130034ZX and 2020M680102), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 72061137006 and 82204113).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11684-022-0954-x and is accessible for authorized users.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Hao Wang, Yu Yuan, Bihao Wu, Mingzhong Xiao, Zhen Wang, Tingyue Diao, Rui Zeng, Li Chen, Yanshou Lei, Pinpin Long, Yi Guo, Xuefeng Lai, Yuying Wen, Wenhui Li, Hao Cai, Wei Ni, Youyun Zhao, Kani Ouyang, Jingzhi Wang, Qi Wang, Li Liu, Chaolong Wang, An Pan, Xiaodong Li, Rui Gong, and Tangchun Wu declare that they have no conflict of interest. This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Written informed consent was obtained from each participant.

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