Impaired humoral immunity to BQ.1.1 in convalescent and vaccinated patients

Abstract

Determining SARS-CoV-2 immunity is critical to assess COVID-19 risk and the need for prevention and mitigation strategies. We measured SARS-CoV-2 Spike/Nucleocapsid seroprevalence and serum neutralizing activity against Wu01, BA.4/5 and BQ.1.1 in 1,411 individuals who received medical treatment in five emergency departments in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. We detected Spike-IgG in 95.6%, Nucleocapsid-IgG in 24.0% and neutralization against Wu01, BA.4/5 and BQ.1.1 in 94.4%, 85.0%, and 73.8% of participants, respectively. Neutralization against BA.4/5 and BQ.1.1 was reduced 5.6- and 23.4-fold compared to Wu01. Accuracy of S-IgG detection for determination of neutralizing activity against BQ.1.1 was reduced substantially. Furthermore, we explored previous vaccinations and infections as most important correlates of improved BQ.1.1 neutralization using multivariable and Bayesian network analyses. Given an adherence to COVID-19 vaccination recommendations of only 67.7% of all participants, we highlight the need for improvement of vaccine-uptake to reduce the COVID-19 risk in upcoming infection-waves with immune evasive variants.

STAR SIGN study: Evaluation of COVID‐19 vaccine efficacy against the SARS‐CoV‐2 variants BQ.1.1 and XBB.1.5 in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

“…Novel SARS-CoV-2 omicron subvariants such as XBB.1.5 are predominant in most countries and display alarming potential of vaccine-elicited immune evasion with unknown implications for immunosuppressed patient groups. [34][35][36] Here, we show that neutralisation against BQ.1.1 and XBB.1.5 is impaired in anti-TNF-treated patients with IBD, compared to patients treated with non-anti-TNF biologics and healthy controls.…”

“…Novel SARS‐CoV‐2 omicron subvariants such as XBB.1.5 are predominant in most countries and display alarming potential of vaccine‐elicited immune evasion with unknown implications for immunosuppressed patient groups 34–36 …”

The Omicron Strain of the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus and Its Variants

“…Популяционный иммунитет против SARS-CoV-2 имеет решающее значение для оценки риска заражения и предотвращения (смягчения) последствий. С этой целью в многоцентровом исследовании изучили серопревалентность SARS-CoV-2 и нейтрализующую активность сыворотки против вариантов Wu01 (HU-1), BA.4/BA.5 и BQ.1.1 у 1411 человек, которые получили медицинскую помощь в пяти отделениях неотложной помощи Германии [54]. Доля участников, сообщивших о предыдущих инфекциях, составила 45%.…”