Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Sensitivity of infectious SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants to neutralizing antibodies

2021; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1101/2021.02.12.430472

Delphine Planas, Timothée Bruel, Ludivine Grzelak, Florence Guivel‐Benhassine, Isabelle Staropoli, Françoise Porrot, Cyril Planchais, Julian Buchrieser, Maaran Michael Rajah, Elodie Bishop, Mélanie Albert, Flora Donati, Sylvie Behillil, Vincent Enouf, Marianne Maquart, Maria Gonzalez, de Sèze, Hélène Péré, David Veyer, Aymeric Sève, Etienne Simon‐Lorière, Samira Fafi‐Kremer, Karl Stéfic, Hugo Mouquet, Laurent Hocqueloux, Sylvie van der Werf, Thiérry Prazuck, Olivier Schwartz,

COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies

Abstract SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants emerged respectively in United Kingdom and South Africa and spread in many countries. Here, we isolated infectious B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 strains and examined their sensitivity to anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies present in sera and nasal swabs, in comparison with a D614G reference virus. We established a novel rapid neutralization assay, based on reporter cells that become GFP+ after overnight infection. B.1.1.7 was neutralized by 79/83 sera from convalescent patients collected up to 9 months post symptoms, almost similar to D614G. There was a mean 6-fold reduction in titers and even loss of activity against B.1.351 in 40% of convalescent sera after 9 months. Early sera from 19 vaccinated individuals were almost as potent against B.1.1.7 but less efficacious against B.1.351, when compared to D614G. Nasal swabs from vaccine recipients were not neutralizing, except in individuals who were diagnosed COVID-19+ before vaccination. Thus, faster-spreading variants acquired a partial resistance to humoral immunity generated by natural infection or vaccination, mostly visible in individuals with low antibody levels.