SARS-CoV-2 vaccination induces immunological memory able to cross-recognize variants from Alpha to Omicron

Tarke, A.; Coelho, C. H.; Zhang, Z.; Dan, J. M.; Yu, E. D.; Methot, N.; Bloom, N. I.; Goodwin, B.; Phillips, E.; Mallal, S.; Sidney, J.; Filaci, G.; Weiskopf, D.; da Silva Antunes, R.; Crotty, S.; Grifoni, A.; Sette, A.

doi:10.1101/2021.12.28.474333

bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.12.28.474333

SARS-CoV-2 vaccination induces immunological memory able to cross-recognize variants from Alpha to Omicron

Tarke, A.·Coelho, C. H.·Zhang, Z.·Dan, J. M.·Yu, E. D.·Methot, N.·Bloom, N. I.·Goodwin, B.·Phillips, E.·Mallal, S.·Sidney, J.·Filaci, G.·Weiskopf, D.·da Silva Antunes, R.·Crotty, S.·Grifoni, A.·Sette, A.

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Abstract

We address whether T cell responses induced by different vaccine platforms (mRNA-1273, BNT162b2, Ad26.COV2.S, NVX-CoV2373) cross-recognize SARS-CoV-2 variants. Preservation of at least 83% and 85% for CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses was found, respectively, regardless of vaccine platform or variants analyzed. By contrast, highly significant decreases were observed for memory B cell and neutralizing antibody recognition of variants. Bioinformatic analyses showed full conservation of 91% and 94% of class II and class I spike epitopes. For Omicron, 72% of class II and 86% of class I epitopes were fully conserved, and 84% and 85% of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses were preserved. In-depth epitope repertoire analysis showed a median of 11 and 10 spike epitopes recognized by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from vaccinees. Functional preservation of the majority of the T cell responses may play an important role as a second-level defense against diverse variants.

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Tarke, A., Coelho, C. H., Zhang, Z., Dan, J. M., Yu, E. D., Methot, N., Bloom, N. I., Goodwin, B., Phillips, E., Mallal, S., Sidney, J., Filaci, G., Weiskopf, D., da Silva Antunes, R., Crotty, S., Grifoni, A., Sette, A.. 2021-12-28. SARS-CoV-2 vaccination induces immunological memory able to cross-recognize variants from Alpha to Omicron. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.28.474333

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