Beta infection combined with Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccination leads to broadened neutralizing immunity against Omicron

  1. Sandile Cele
  2. Mallory Bernstein
  3. Farina Karim
  4. Khadija Khan
  5. Yashica Ganga
  6. Zesuliwe Jule
  7. Kajal Reedoy
  8. Gila Lustig
  9. Natasha Samsunder
  10. Matilda Mazibuko
  11. Shi-Hsia Hwa
  12. Nithendra Manickchund
  13. Anne von Gottberg
  14. Nombulelo Magula
  15. Richard J. Lessells
  16. Tulio de Oliveira
  17. Salim S. Abdool Karim
  18. Willem Hanekom
  19. COMMIT-KZN Team
  20. Bernadett I. Gosnell
  21. Mahomed-Yunus S. Moosa
  22. Alex Sigal

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Abstract

Omicron (B.1.1.529) shows extensive escape from vaccine immunity, although vaccination reduces severe disease and death 1 . Boosting with vaccines incorporating variant spike sequences could possibly broaden immunity 2 . One approach to choose the variant may be to measure immunity elicited by vaccination combined with variant infection. Here we investigated Omicron neutralization in people infected with the Beta (B.1.351) variant and subsequently vaccinated with Pfizer BNT162b2. We observed that Beta infection alone elicited poor Omicron cross-neutralization, similar to what we previously found 3 with BNT162b2 vaccination alone or in combination with ancestral or Delta virus infection. In contrast, Beta infection combined with BNT162b2 vaccination elicited neutralization with substantially lower Omicron escape.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.04.15.22273711: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    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: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    The limitations are that here we tested immunity generated by Beta virus infection followed by vaccination. Whether boosting with Beta sequence post-primary vaccination would be similar is unclear. However, it may be one line of evidence which argues for testing this approach.

    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 10.1101/2022.04.15.22273711v1 on medRxiv