Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

June 10, 2021

Neutralizing Antibodies Elicited by the Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19 Vaccine Show Reduced Activity against 501Y.V2 (B.1.351) despite Protection against Severe Disease by This Variant

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  • [Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody binding responses among individuals 29 days after vaccination with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson-Janssen vaccine (n=88) were reduced by 1.8-fold against the B.1.351 (Beta) variant compared to the wild-type D614G strain. By contrast, 82% in a subset of 27 individuals showed no neutralizing activity against B.1.351 (Beta) at Day 29 compared to 4% against the wild-type strain. Geometric mean neutralizing titers were also 3-fold lower against B.1.351 (Beta). The authors conclude that, given the comparable efficacy of the vaccine against the wild-type and B.1.351 (Beta) variants, these data suggest that even low levels of neutralizing antibodies may contribute to protection from moderate/severe disease.

Moore et al. (June 9, 2021). Neutralizing Antibodies Elicited by the Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19 Vaccine Show Reduced Activity against 501Y.V2 (B.1.351) despite Protection against Severe Disease by This Variant. Pre-print downloaded Jun 10 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.09.447722