SARS-CoV-2 Lambda Variant Remains Susceptible to Neutralization by mRNA Vaccine-elicited Antibodies and Convalescent Serum

  1. Takuya Tada
  2. Hao Zhou
  3. Belinda M. Dcosta
  4. Marie I. Samanovic
  5. Mark J. Mulligan
  6. Nathaniel R. Landau

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Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 lambda variant (lineage C.37) was designated by the World Health Organization as a variant of interest and is currently increasing in prevalence in South American and other countries. The lambda spike protein contains novel mutations within the receptor binding domain (L452Q and F490S) that may contribute to its increased transmissibility and could result in susceptibility to re-infection or a reduction in protection provided by current vaccines. In this study, the infectivity and susceptibility of viruses with the lambda variant spike protein to neutralization by convalescent sera and vaccine-elicited antibodies was tested. Virus with the lambda spike had higher infectivity and was neutralized by convalescent sera and vaccine-elicited antibodies with a relatively minor 2.3-3.3-fold decrease in titer on average. The virus was neutralized by the Regeneron therapeutic monoclonal antibody cocktail with no loss of titer. The results suggest that vaccines in current use will remain protective against the lambda variant and that monoclonal antibody therapy will remain effective.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.07.02.450959: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsConsent: Human Sera and monoclonal antibodies: Convalescent sera and BNT162b2 or Moderna-vaccinated sera were collected on day 28, 7 days post-second immunization, at the NYU Vaccine Center with written consent under IRB approved protocols (IRB 18-02035 and IRB 18-02037).
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Cell Line Authenticationnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    Immunoblot analysis: Proteins were analyzed on immunoblots probed with mouse anti-spike monoclonal antibody (1A9) (GeneTex), anti-p24 monoclonal antibody (AG3.0) and anti-GAPDH monoclonal antibody (Life Technologies) followed by goat anti-mouse HRP-conjugated secondary antibody (Sigma) as previously described2.
    anti-spike
    suggested: (Imported from the IEDB Cat# 1A9, RRID:AB_2848025)
    anti-p24
    suggested: None
    anti-GAPDH
    suggested: None
    anti-mouse HRP-conjugated secondary
    suggested: None
    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    Soluble ACE2 Neutralization assay: Serially diluted recombinant soluble ACE2 protein prepared from transfected CHO cells was incubated with pseudotyped virus for 30 minutes at room temperature and added to ACE2.293T cells.
    CHO
    suggested: None
    ACE2.293T
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Statistical Analysis: All experiments were in technical duplicates or triplicates and the data were analyzed using GraphPad Prism 8.
    GraphPad Prism
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)
    3D view of protein was obtained using PyMOL.
    PyMOL
    suggested: (PyMOL, RRID:SCR_000305)

    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.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    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 10.1101/2021.07.02.450959v1 on bioRxiv