Humoral response superiority of the monovalent XBB.1.5 over the bivalent BA.1 and BA.5 mRNA COVID-19 vaccines

Yaniv Lustig*, Noam Barda, Yael Weiss-Ottolenghi, Victoria Indenbaum, Ili Margalit, Keren Asraf, Ram Doolman, Spyros Chalkias, Rituparna Das, Gamal Elfatarany, Dror Harats, Yitshak Kreiss, Gili Regev-Yochay

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

JN.1, the dominating SARS-CoV-2 variant, is antigenically distinct from ancestral BA.1, BA.5 and XBB.1.5 variants, raising concern about effectiveness of updated COVID-19 vaccines. Here, we compared the neutralizing antibody response against JN.1, 1-month after receipt of the three available Moderna mRNA vaccines. Sera obtained from 37, 30 and 30 XBB.1.5, BA.1 and BA.4-5 -vaccine recipients, respectively, were tested for anti-RBD IgG and for JN-1 specific neutralizing antibody levels. Geometric mean fold rise (GMFR) in JN.1 specific neutralizing titers was 27 (95 % CI: 17–43.1), 10.1 (95 % CI: 6.48–15.7) and 8.77 (95 % CI: 5.69–13.5) following XBB.1.5, BA.1 and BA.4-5 vaccines, respectively, translating into a 64 % lower adjusted response (geometric mean ratio [GMR] = 0.36, 95 % CI: 0.21–0.6) in the BA.1 arm, and a 75 % lower response (GMR = 0.25, 95 % CI: 0.15–0.43) in the BA.4-5 arm. This suggests that XBB.1.5 vaccination will most likely, result in improved effectiveness against JN.1 compared with other COVID-19 vaccines.

Original languageEnglish
Article number126010
JournalVaccine
Volume42
Issue number22
DOIs
StateAccepted/In press - 2024

Funding

FundersFunder number
Moderna
Sheba Medical Center

    Keywords

    • COVID-19 vaccination
    • JN.1 variant
    • Neutralizing antibodies
    • SARS-CoV-2

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Humoral response superiority of the monovalent XBB.1.5 over the bivalent BA.1 and BA.5 mRNA COVID-19 vaccines'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this