1. Omicron BA.4/BA.5 escape neutralizing immunity elicited by BA.1 infection
- Author
-
Khan, K., Karim, F., Ganga, Y., Bernstein, M., Jule, Z., Reedoy, K., Cele, S., Lustig, G., Amoako, D., Wolter, N., Samsunder, N., Sivro, A., San, J., Giandhari, J., Tegally, H., Pillay, S., Naidoo, Y., Mazibuko, M., Miya, Y., Ngcobo, N., Manickchund, N., Magula, N., Karim, Q., von Gottberg, A., Karim, S., Hanekom, W., Gosnell, B., Team, C., Lessells, R., de Oliveira, T., Moosa, M., and Sigal, A.
- Subjects
Multidisciplinary ,Neutralization Tests ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus ,COVID-19 ,Humans ,General Physics and Astronomy ,General Chemistry ,Antibodies, Viral ,Antibodies, Neutralizing ,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology - Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (B.1.1.529) BA.4 and BA.5 sub-lineages, first detected in South Africa, have changes relative to Omicron BA.1 including substitutions in the spike receptor binding domain. Here we isolated live BA.4 and BA.5 viruses and measured BA.4/BA.5 neutralization elicited by BA.1 infection either in the absence or presence of previous vaccination as well as from vaccination without BA.1 infection. In BA.1-infected unvaccinated individuals, neutralization relative to BA.1 declines 7.6-fold for BA.4 and 7.5-fold for BA.5. In vaccinated individuals with subsequent BA.1 infection, neutralization relative to BA.1 decreases 3.2-fold for BA.4 and 2.6-fold for BA.5. The fold-drop versus ancestral virus neutralization in this group is 4.0-fold for BA.1, 12.9-fold for BA.4, and 10.3-fold for BA.5. In contrast, BA.4/BA.5 escape is similar to BA.1 in the absence of BA.1 elicited immunity: fold-drop relative to ancestral virus neutralization is 19.8-fold for BA.1, 19.6-fold for BA.4, and 20.9-fold for BA.5. These results show considerable escape of BA.4/BA.5 from BA.1 elicited immunity which is moderated with vaccination and may indicate that BA.4/BA.5 may have the strongest selective advantage in evading neutralization relative to BA.1 in unvaccinated, BA.1 infected individuals.
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF