Antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines are detectable in saliva

  1. Thomas J. Ketas
  2. Devidas Chaturbhuj
  3. Victor M Cruz-Portillo
  4. Erik Francomano
  5. Encouse Golden
  6. Sharanya Chandrasekhar
  7. Gargi Debnath
  8. Randy Diaz-Tapia
  9. Anila Yasmeen
  10. Wilhem Leconet
  11. Zhen Zhao
  12. Philip J.M. Brouwer
  13. Melissa M. Cushing
  14. Rogier W. Sanders
  15. Albert Cupo
  16. P. J. Klasse
  17. Silvia C. Formenti
  18. John P. Moore

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Discuss this preprint

Start a discussion What are Sciety discussions?

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

Vaccines are critical for curtailing the COVID-19 pandemic (1, 2). In the USA, two highly protective mRNA vaccines are available: BNT162b2 from Pfizer/BioNTech and mRNA-1273 from Moderna (3, 4). These vaccines induce antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 S-protein, including neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) predominantly directed against the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) (1-4). Serum NAbs are induced at modest levels within ∼1 week of the first dose, but their titers are strongly boosted by a second dose at 3 (BNT162b2) or 4 weeks (mRNA-1273) (3, 4). SARS-CoV-2 is most commonly transmitted nasally or orally and infects cells in the mucosae of the respiratory and to some extent also the gastrointestinal tract (5). Although serum NAbs may be a correlate of protection against COVID-19, mucosal antibodies might directly prevent or limit virus acquisition by the nasal, oral and conjunctival routes (5). Whether the mRNA vaccines induce mucosal immunity has not been studied. Here, we report that antibodies to the S-protein and its RBD are present in saliva samples from mRNA-vaccinated healthcare workers (HCW). Within 1-2 weeks after their second dose, 37/37 and 8/8 recipients of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, respectively, had S-protein IgG antibodies in their saliva, while IgA was detected in a substantial proportion. These observations may be relevant to vaccine-mediated protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease.

Article activity feed

  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.11.434841: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: The WCM Institutional Review Board approved the study on 6.3.2020 with the protocol number 20-04021831 and title WELCOME trial (Weill Cornell Medicine Employees) with Dr. Silvia C. Formenti MD as the Principal Investigator.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    ELISA procedures: The assay used to quantify S-protein and anti-RBD antibodies was modified from what was described previously (15).
    anti-RBD
    suggested: None
    Bound antibodies were detected using goat anti-human horse radish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated antibodies: anti-IgA from Southern Biotech (2050-05)
    anti-human horse
    suggested: None
    anti-IgA
    suggested: None

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.03.11.434841 on bioRxiv