Abstract

The emergence of Omicron/BA.1 has brought new challenges to fight against SARS-CoV-2. A large number of mutations in the Spike protein suggest that its susceptibility to immune protection elicited by the existing COVID-19 infection and vaccines may be altered. In this study, we constructed the pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron. The sensitivity of 28 serum samples from COVID-19 convalescent patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 original strain was tested against pseudotyped Omicron as well as the other variants of concern (VOCs, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta) and variants of interest (VOIs, Lambda, Mu). Our results indicated that the mean neutralization ED50 of these sera against Omicron decreased to 66, which is about 8.4-folds compared to the D614G reference strain (ED50 = 556), whereas the neutralization activity of other VOC and VOI pseudotyped viruses decreased only about 1.2–4.5-folds. The finding from our in vitro assay suggest that Omicron variant may lead to more significant escape from immune protection elicited by previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and perhaps even by existing COVID-19 vaccines.

Details

Title
The significant immune escape of pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron
Author
Zhang, Li 1 ; Li, Qianqian 2 ; Liang, Ziteng 3 ; Li, Tao 1 ; Liu, Shuo 1 ; Cui, Qianqian 1 ; Nie, Jianhui 1 ; Wu, Qian 4 ; Qu, Xiaowang 4 ; Huang, Weijin 1 ; Wang, Youchun 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

1  Division of HIV/AIDS and Sex-transmitted Virus Vaccines, Institute for Biological Product Control, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing, People’s Republic of China 
2  Division of HIV/AIDS and Sex-transmitted Virus Vaccines, Institute for Biological Product Control, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing, People’s Republic of China; Jiangsu Recbio Technology Co., Ltd., Taizhou, People’s Republic of China 
3  Division of HIV/AIDS and Sex-transmitted Virus Vaccines, Institute for Biological Product Control, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing, People’s Republic of China; Graduate School of Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, People’s Republic of China 
4  Translational Medicine Institute, The First People’s Hospital of Chenzhou, University of South China, Chenzhou, People’s Republic of China 
Pages
1-5
Publication year
2022
Publication date
Dec 2022
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Ltd.
e-ISSN
22221751
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/22221751.2021.2017757
ProQuest document ID
2748038590
Copyright
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group, on behalf of Shanghai Shangyixun Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.