[PDF][PDF] Differential immunogenicity of homologous versus heterologous boost in Ad26. COV2. S vaccine recipients

NKH Khoo, JME Lim, US Gill, R de Alwis, N Tan… - Med, 2022 - cell.com
NKH Khoo, JME Lim, US Gill, R de Alwis, N Tan, JZN Toh, JE Abbott, C Usai, EE Ooi
Med, 2022cell.com
Background Protection offered by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines wanes
over time, requiring an evaluation of different boosting strategies to revert such a trend and
enhance the quantity and quality of Spike-specific humoral and cellular immune responses.
These immunological parameters in homologous or heterologous vaccination boosts have
thus far been studied for mRNA and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccines, but knowledge on
individuals who received a single dose of Ad26. COV2. S is lacking. Methods We studied …
Background
Protection offered by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines wanes over time, requiring an evaluation of different boosting strategies to revert such a trend and enhance the quantity and quality of Spike-specific humoral and cellular immune responses. These immunological parameters in homologous or heterologous vaccination boosts have thus far been studied for mRNA and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccines, but knowledge on individuals who received a single dose of Ad26.COV2.S is lacking.
Methods
We studied Spike-specific humoral and cellular immunity in Ad26.COV2.S-vaccinated individuals (n = 55) who were either primed with Ad26.COV2.S only (n = 13) or were boosted with a homologous (Ad26.COV2.S, n = 28) or heterologous (BNT162b2, n = 14) second dose. We compared our findings with the results found in individuals vaccinated with a single (n = 16) or double (n = 44) dose of BNT162b2.
Findings
We observed that a strategy of heterologous vaccination enhanced the quantity and breadth of both Spike-specific humoral and cellular immunity in Ad26.COV2.S-vaccinated individuals. In contrast, the impact of the homologous boost was quantitatively minimal in Ad26.COV2.S-vaccinated individuals, and Spike-specific antibodies and T cells were narrowly focused to the S1 region.
Conclusions
Despite the small sample size of the study and the lack of well-defined correlates of protection against COVID-19, the immunological features detected support the utilization of a heterologous vaccine boost in individuals who received Ad26.COV2.S vaccination.
Funding
This study is partially supported by the Singapore Ministry of Health's National Medical Research Council under its COVID-19 Research Fund (COVID19RF3-0060, COVID19RF-001, and COVID19RF-008), The Medical College St. Bartholomew's Hospital Trustees – Pump Priming Fund for SMD COVID-19 Research.
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