ARTICLE: Low neutralisation of the omicron BA.2 sublineage in boosted individuals who had breakthrough infections
AUTHORS: Andrew H Karaba, Trevor S Johnston, Tihitina Y Aytenfisu, Bezawit A Woldemeskel, Caroline C Garliss, Andrea L Cox, Joel N Blankson
JOURNAL: Lancet Microbe. 2022 Sep;3(9):e644. doi: 10.1016/S2666-5247(22)00180-X. Epub 2022 Jun 22.
The omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 comprises several sublineages (BA.1, BA.1·1, BA.2, and BA.3, etc) with an increasing prevalence of the sublineage BA.2.1 Although the receipt of a third (booster) dose of an mRNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is associated with improved protection against the omicron variant, many breakthrough infections occurred during the initial omicron surge,2, 3 and it is unknown whether a breakthrough infection with BA.1 in an individual who had received a booster vaccine would provide protection from infection from another sublineage.
To address this question, we compared surrogate neutralisation against BA.1, BA.2, and BA.3 omicron sublineages, in addition to the vaccine strain, in plasma from individuals who were boosted (N=36) or had a breakthrough infection during the BA.1 surge after boosting (N=18). All participants were enrolled according to protocols approved by the Johns Hopkins University institutional review board and provided written informed consent. From boosted uninfected participants, a total of 28 samples were taken 1–3 weeks post-boost and 16 samples were taken 1–3 months post-boost; and from individuals with a breakthrough infection, 18 samples were taken 1–3 weeks post-infection and 14 samples were taken 4–7 weeks post-infection. The samples were tested for surrogate neutralisation.
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