Short-Term Drop in Antibody Titer after the Third Dose of SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 Vaccine in Adults

  1. Jonas Herzberg
  2. Bastian Fischer
  3. Heiko Becher
  4. Ann-Kristin Becker
  5. Human Honarpisheh
  6. Salman Yousuf Guraya
  7. Tim Strate
  8. Cornelius Knabbe

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Abstract

Little is known about the longevity of antibodies after a third dose of the mRNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine BNT162b2 (BioNTech/Pfizer, Mainz, Germany). Therefore, serum antibody levels were evaluated after a third dose of BNT162b2 in healthy adult healthcare workers in Germany. These antibody levels dropped significantly within a short period of 11 weeks from 4155.59 ± 2373.65 BAU/mL to 2389.10 ± 1433.90 BAU/mL, p-value < 0.001 but remained higher than after the second dose (611.92 ± 450.31 BAU/mL). To evaluate the quality of the humoral immune response, we additionally measured neutralizing antibodies, which also showed a small but significant decrease within this short period. These data underline the positive effect of a third dose of BNT162b2 concerning antibody re-induction but also shows a drop of Anti-SARS-CoV-2-IgG within a short span of time.

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  1. Version published to 10.3390/vaccines10050805
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.03.07.22272028: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: The study was approved in April 2020 by the ethics committee of the medical association Schleswig-Holstein, Germany and all participants provided written and informed consent prior to inclusion.
    Consent: The study was approved in April 2020 by the ethics committee of the medical association Schleswig-Holstein, Germany and all participants provided written and informed consent prior to inclusion.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    Anti-SARS-CoV-2-IgG antibodies were measured using the anti-SARS-CoV-2-assay (IgG) from Abbott (Chicago, USA) and the values were quantitatively expressed in binding-antibody-units per ml (BAU/ml) In addition, neutralizing anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies where detected using the NeutraLISA™ SARS-CoV-2 Neutralization Antibody Detection KIT (Euroimmun, Lübeck, Germany).
    Anti-SARS-CoV-2-IgG
    suggested: None
    anti-SARS-CoV-2-assay (IgG
    suggested: None
    anti-SARS-CoV-2
    suggested: None
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Anti-SARS-CoV-2-IgG antibodies were measured using the anti-SARS-CoV-2-assay (IgG) from Abbott (Chicago, USA) and the values were quantitatively expressed in binding-antibody-units per ml (BAU/ml) In addition, neutralizing anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies where detected using the NeutraLISA™ SARS-CoV-2 Neutralization Antibody Detection KIT (Euroimmun, Lübeck, Germany).
    Abbott
    suggested: (Abbott, RRID:SCR_010477)
    The statistical analysis was done using the IBM SPSS Statistics Version 25 (IBM Co., Armonk, NY, USA) and GraphPad Prism 9.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)
    GraphPad
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)

    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.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2022.03.07.22272028 on medRxiv