Neutralizing antibody responses in patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 Delta or Omicron infection

• Authors: Susanne L Linderman, Emory University; Lilin Lai, Emory University; Estefany Bocangel L Gamarra, Emory University; Max SY Lau, Emory University; Srilatha Edupuganti, Emory University; Diya Surie, CDC, Atlanta; Mark W Tenforde, CDC, Atlanta; James D Chappell, Vanderbilt University; Nicholas M Mohr, University of Iowa; Kevin W Gibbs, Wake Forest School of Medicine; Jay S Steingrub, Baystate Medical Center; Matthew C Exline, Ohio State University; Nathan I Shapiro, Beth Israel Deaconess Med Ctr; Anne E Frosch, Hennepin County Medical Center; Nida Qadir, University of California Los Angeles; Meredith E Davis-Gardner, Emory University; Juliana McElrath, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Adam S Lauring, University of Michigan; Mehul Suthar, Emory University; Manish M Patel, CDC; Wesley H Self, Vanderbilt University; Rafi Ahmed, Emory University
• Journal Title: JOURNAL OF CLINICAL INVESTIGATION
• Volume: Volume 132, Number 23
• Publisher: AMER SOC CLINICAL INVESTIGATION INC | 2022-12-01
• Type of Work: Article | Final Publisher PDF
• Publisher DOI: http://doi.org/10.1172/JCI164303
• Subjects: Health Sciences, Immunology; Biology, Microbiology
• Keywords: Science & Technology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Medicine, Research & Experimental; Research & Experimental Medicine

Abstract

To the Editor: Humoral and cellular immune responses contribute to overall protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2, with neutralizing antibody playing a key role in preventing viral infection. This is evident from the large number of Omicron infections occurring in vaccinated and convalescent patients, since antibodies induced after vaccination or infection by the ancestral WA1 strain do not neutralize Omicron variants efficiently (1, 2). These findings have led to the FDA recommendation for inclusion of the Omicron variant in bivalent COVID-19 vaccines. However, issues have been raised about the value of adding Omicron to the vaccine based on data showing only modest differences between antibody responses after booster immunization with Omicron- versus WA1-based vaccines (3, 4). Also, a recent study has shown that booster responses to Omicron infection are affected by previous SARS-CoV-2 infections (5). Thus, having additional information on the types of neutralizing antibody responses induced after infection with different SARS-CoV-2 variants will be helpful in addressing this important issue.