Two studies on the Omicron variant of Sars-CoV 2 by Kanika and Henning
Durability of omicron-neutralising serum activity after mRNA booster immunisation in older adults.
Vanshylla K, Tober-Lau P, Gruell H, Münn F, Eggeling R, Pfeifer N, Le NH, Landgraf I, Kurth F, Sander LE, Klein F.
Lancet Infect Dis. (2022)
mRNA booster immunization elicits potent neutralizing serum activity against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant
Gruell H, Vanshylla K, Tober-Lau P, Hillus D, Schommers P, Lehmann C, Kurth F, Sander LE, Klein F.
Nature Medicine (2021)
Abstract
The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is causing a rapid increase in infections across the globe. This new variant of concern carries an unusually high number of mutations in key epitopes of neutralizing antibodies on the viral spike glycoprotein, suggesting potential immune evasion. Here we assessed serum neutralizing capacity in longitudinal cohorts of vaccinated and convalescent individuals, as well as monoclonal antibody activity against Omicron using pseudovirus neutralization assays. We report a near-complete lack of neutralizing activity against Omicron in polyclonal sera from individuals vaccinated with two doses of the BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine and from convalescent individuals, as well as resistance to different monoclonal antibodies in clinical use. However, mRNA booster immunizations in vaccinated and convalescent individuals resulted in a significant increase of serum neutralizing activity against Omicron. The presented study demonstrates that booster immunizations may be critical to substantially improve the humoral immune response against the Omicron variant.