April 14, 2021

SARS-CoV-2 Spike E484K Mutation Reduces Antibody Neutralisation

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Vaccines and Immunity

Keywords (Tags): immunity, vaccine, variant

• An in-vitro study of serum from persons with either prior SARS-CoV-2 infection or two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (N=34) found that antibody neutralization in all samples was reduced against SARS-CoV-2 virus with a single spike E484K mutation compared to the USA-WA1/2020 strain (the strain first detected in the US). The largest reductions in antibody neutralization were observed in samples with low and moderate IgG antibody levels. Samples with high IgG levels from individuals with two doses of the vaccine were still able to fully neutralize virus. The authors suggest this data may indicate that delaying the second vaccine dose may leave persons vulnerable to infection with a variant containing the E484K mutation; however, the study did not include sera from persons with only one dose as a comparison.

Jangra et al. (Apr 7, 2021). SARS-CoV-2 Spike E484K Mutation Reduces Antibody Neutralisation. The Lancet Microbe. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-5247(21)00068-9