Abstract

The Omicron SARS-CoV-2 has several distinct sublineages, among which sublineage BA.1 is responsible for the initial Omicron surge and is now being replaced by BA.2 worldwide, whereas BA.3 is currently at a low frequency. The ongoing BA.1-to-BA.2 replacement underscores the importance to understand the cross-neutralization among the three Omicron sublineages. Here we test the neutralization of BA.1-infected human sera against BA.2, BA.3, and USA/WA1-2020 (a strain isolated in late January 2020). The BA.1-infected sera neutralize BA.1, BA.2, BA.3, and USA/WA1-2020 SARS-CoV-2s with geometric mean titers (GMTs) of 445, 107, 102, and 16, respectively. Thus, the neutralizing GMTs against heterologous BA.2, BA.3, and USA/WA1-2020 are 4.2-, 4.4-, and 28.4-fold lower than the GMT against homologous BA.1, respectively. These findings have implications in COVID-19 vaccine strategy.

It is important to understand the cross-neutralization among distinct SARS-CoV-2 Omicron sublineages. Zou et al. show that sera from Omicron BA.1-infected people are significantly weaker in neutralizing Omicron BA.2, BA.3, and USA-WA1/2020 than neutralizing BA.1.

Details

Title
Cross-neutralization of Omicron BA.1 against BA.2 and BA.3 SARS-CoV-2
Author
Zou, Jing 1 ; Kurhade, Chaitanya 1 ; Xia, Hongjie 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Liu, Mingru 2 ; Xie, Xuping 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ren, Ping 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Shi, Pei-Yong 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

1  University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964) 
2  University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Pathology, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964) 
3  University of Texas Medical Branch, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964); University of Texas Medical Branch, Sealy Institute for Drug Discovery, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964); University of Texas Medical Branch, Institute for Human Infection and Immunity, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964); University of Texas Medical Branch, Institute for Translational Sciences, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964); University of Texas Medical Branch, Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences, Galveston, USA (GRID:grid.176731.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1547 9964) 
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30580-5
ProQuest document ID
2669800646
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2022. This work is published under 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.