SARS-CoV-2 correlates of protection from infection against variants of concern

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, intensified by emerging SARS-CoV-2 mutations, highlights the urgent need for enhanced vaccines. Despite considerable efforts in vaccine design, improvements are still required in formulating vaccines targeting the novel coronavirus. This study, utilized immunoinformatics and reverse vaccinology to design multi-epitope vaccines targeting emerging variations. B and T cell epitopes were generated by analyzing the mutation sites of the prevalent variant strains, and two vaccines were designed by linking with two different adjuvants. Interaction of the model vaccines with four Toll-like receptors (TLR) revealed a relatively high affinity between vaccines and immune receptors. Codon optimization and computational cloning were conducted to validate the robustness of the multi-epitope vaccines and immunogenic simulations were performed to assess the antigenicity and antibody generation capability of the vaccine. The L455S mutation in the JN.1 variant and its adjacent F456L mutation on antibody effectiveness against the XBB variant revealed that 15 antibody structures maintained a certain level of binding affinity. This study offers an immunological evaluation from a mutation-centric perspective and integrates co-evolutionary analysis with immunoinformatics to design effective multi-epitope vaccines targeting various SARS-CoV-2 strains. The methodologies applied in this research can also be extended to the vaccine development for other pathogens.

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Dynamic changes of neutralizing antibody and memory T cell responses six months post Omicron XBB reinfection

Zhao,

Li,

Zhang

et al. 2024

Front. Immunol.

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IntroductionWith the continued prevalence of COVID-19, repeated infection caused by SARS-CoV-2 has become common. However, studies on immune persistence post Omicron XBB reinfection are limited.MethodsWe prospectively studied the durability and cross-reactivity of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) and T cell responses among 20 subjects who suffered Omicron BA.5 infection with or without Omicron XBB reinfection over 6-month through the pseudovirus neutralization test and the fluorospot assay.ResultsNAbs against EG.5.1, BA.2.86, and JN.1 subvariants were decreased and undetectable at 6-month post Omicron BA.5 infection, while those elicited by Omicron XBB reinfection were significant increased and remained detectable against all detected variants within 6-month. Furthermore, in subjects with Omicron XBB reinfection, memory T cell responses could cross-recognized wild-type and Omicron spike peptides and reached peak at 3-month. Interestingly, comparable robust T cell responses were observed among non-seroconverted subjects post Omicron XBB exposure.ConclusionThough the NAbs against various emerging Omicron subvariants elicited by Omicron XBB reinfection can persist for at least 6-month, the HCWs should strengthen personal protection and timely be immunized with updated vaccines upon current circulating variants or conserved T epitope.

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SARS-CoV-2 correlates of protection from infection against variants of concern

Cited by 5 publications

References 51 publications

mRNA vaccine-induced IgG mediates nasal SARS-CoV-2 clearance in mice

mRNA vaccine-induced IgG mediates nasal SARS-CoV-2 clearance in mice

Immunoinformatics-Based Design of Broad-Spectrum Multi-Epitope Vaccines Targeting Mutations in Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Variants

Dynamic changes of neutralizing antibody and memory T cell responses six months post Omicron XBB reinfection

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