Evolution of neutralising antibody responses to natural infection and after vaccination

Simon Collins, HIV i-Base

A detailed reviewed of the development of quantitative and qualitative antibody responses reports differences from when vaccination follows an earlier infection.

The paper describes the increasingly broad and potent antibody responses from B cells, including against recent variants, and that these are significantly boosted after mRNA vaccination.

In contrast, SARS-CoV-2 naive participants, the second vaccine dramatically increases neutralising activity, but doesn’t develop further breadth. The paper suggest that further boosting with currently available vaccines is unlikely to change this qualitative aspect of protection.

Reference

Cho A et al. Antibody Evolution after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccination. BioRxiv DOI: 10.1101/2021.07.29.454333. (29 July 2021).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.29.454333

This article was first published on 3 August 2021.