More rapid, robust and sustainable antibody responses to mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in convalescent COVID-19 individuals

ABSTRACT

Longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine antibody response under "real-world" conditions. This longitudinal study investigated the quantity and quality of SARS-CoV-2 antibody response in 846 specimens from 350 subjects: comparing BNT162b2-vaccinated individuals (19 previously diagnosed with COVID-19 [RecoVax]; 49 never been diagnosed [NaiveVax]) to 122 hospitalized unvaccinated (HospNoVax) and 160 outpatient unvaccinated (OutPtNoVax) COVID-19 patients. NaiveVax experienced a delay in generating SARS-CoV-2 total antibody levels (TAb) and neutralizing antibodies (SNAb) after the 1st vaccine dose (D1), but a rapid increase in antibody levels was observed after the 2nd dose (D2). However, these never reached the robust levels observed in RecoVax. In fact, NaiveVax TAb and SNAb levels decreased 4-weeks post-D2 (p=0.003;p<0.001). For the most part, RecoVax TAb persisted throughout this study, after reaching maximal levels 2-weeks post-D2; but SNAb decreased significantly [~]6-months post-D1 (p=0.002). Although NaiveVax avidity lagged behind that of RecoVax for most of the follow-up periods, NaiveVax did reach similar avidity by [~]6-months post-D1. These data suggest that one vaccine dose elicits maximal antibody response in RecoVax and may be sufficient. Also, despite decreasing levels in TAb and SNAb overtime, long-term avidity maybe a measure worth evaluating and possibly correlating to vaccine efficacy.