Waning immune responses against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern among vaccinees in Hong Kong
Qiaoli Peng,
Runhong Zhou,
Yuewen Wang,
Meiqing Zhao,
Na Liu,
Shuang Li,
Haode Huang,
Dawei Yang,
Ka-Kit Au,
Hui Wang,
Kwan Man,
Kwok-Yung Yuen,
Zhiwei Chen
Affiliations
Qiaoli Peng
AIDS Institute, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, HKU AIDS Institute Shenzhen Research laboratory, The Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen and The Second Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
Runhong Zhou
AIDS Institute, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China
Yuewen Wang
Department of Surgery, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China
Meiqing Zhao
AIDS Institute, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China
Na Liu
AIDS Institute, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China
Shuang Li
AIDS Institute, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China
Haode Huang
AIDS Institute, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China
Dawei Yang
AIDS Institute, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China
Ka-Kit Au
AIDS Institute, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China
Hui Wang
National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, HKU AIDS Institute Shenzhen Research laboratory, The Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen and The Second Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
Kwan Man
Department of Surgery, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China
Kwok-Yung Yuen
AIDS Institute, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; State Key Laboratory for Emerging Infectious Diseases, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; Centre for Virology, Vaccinology and Therapeutics Limited, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
Zhiwei Chen
AIDS Institute, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, HKU AIDS Institute Shenzhen Research laboratory, The Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen and The Second Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People's Republic of China; State Key Laboratory for Emerging Infectious Diseases, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China; Centre for Virology, Vaccinology and Therapeutics Limited, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China; Corresponding author at: AIDS Institute and Department of Microbiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China.
Summary: Background: Nearly 4 billion doses of the BNT162b2-mRNA and CoronaVac-inactivated vaccines have been administrated globally, yet different vaccine-induced immunity against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) remain incompletely investigated. Methods: We compare the immunogenicity and durability of these two vaccines among fully vaccinated Hong Kong people. Findings: Standard BNT162b2 and CoronaVac vaccinations were tolerated and induced neutralizing antibody (NAb) (100% and 85.7%) and spike-specific CD4 T cell responses (96.7% and 82.1%), respectively. The geometric mean NAb IC50 and median frequencies of reactive CD4 subsets were consistently lower among CoronaVac-vaccinees than BNT162b2-vaccinees. CoronaVac did not induce measurable levels of nucleocapsid protein-specific IFN-γ+ CD4+ T or IFN-γ+ CD8+ T cells compared with unvaccinated. Against VOCs, NAb response rates and geometric mean IC50 titers against B.1.617.2 (Delta) and B.1.1.529 (Omicron) were significantly lower for CoronaVac (50%, 23.2 and 7.1%, <20) than BNT162b2 (94.1%, 131 and 58.8%, 35.0), respectively. Three months after vaccinations, NAbs to VOCs dropped near to detection limit, along with waning memory T cell responses, mainly among CoronaVac-vaccinees. Interpretation: Our results indicate that vaccinees especially CoronaVac-vaccinees with significantly reduced NAbs may probably face higher risk to pandemic VOCs breakthrough infection. Funding: This study was supported by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council Collaborative Research Fund (C7156-20GF and C1134-20GF); the Wellcome Trust (P86433); the National Program on Key Research Project of China (Grant 2020YFC0860600, 2020YFA0707500 and 2020YFA0707504); Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (JSGG20200225151410198 and JCYJ20210324131610027); HKU Development Fund and LKS Faculty of Medicine Matching Fund to AIDS Institute; Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Fund, Innovation and Technology Commission and generous donation from the Friends of Hope Education Fund. Z.C.’s team was also partly supported by the Theme-Based Research Scheme (T11-706/18-N).
