Previous SARS-CoV-2 infection or a third dose of vaccine elicited cross-variant neutralising antibodies in vaccinated solid-organ transplant recipients.

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic poses a great threat to global health, particularly in solid organ transplant recipients (SOTRs). A 3-dose mRNA vaccination protocol has been implemented for the majority of SOTRs, yet their immune responses are less effective compared to healthy controls (HCs). Methods: We analyzed the humoral immune responses against the vaccine strain and variants of concern (VOC), including the highly mutated-omicron variant in 113 SOTRs, of whom 44 had recovered from COVID-19 (recovered-SOTRs) and 69 had not contracted the virus (COVID-naïve). In addition, 30 HCs, 8 of whom had recovered from COVID-19, were also studied. Results: Here, we report that three doses of the mRNA vaccine had only a modest effect in eliciting anti-viral antibodies against all viral strains in the fully vaccinated COVID-naive SOTRs (n = 47). Only 34.0% of this group of patients demonstrated both detectable anti-RBD IgG with neutralization activities against alpha, beta, and delta variants, and only 8.5% of them showed additional omicron neutralizing capacities. In contrast, 79.5% of the recovered-SOTRs who received two doses of vaccine demonstrated both higher anti-RBD IgG levels and neutralizing activities against all VOC, including omicron. Conclusion: These findings illustrate a significant impact of previous infection on the development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 immune responses in vaccinated SOTRs and highlight the need for alternative strategies to protect a subset of a lesser-vaccine responsive population.