Functional Profiling of In Vitro Reactivated Memory B Cells Following Natural SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Gam-COVID-Vac Vaccination
Ekaterina A. Astakhova,
Maria G. Byazrova,
Gaukhar M. Yusubalieva,
Sergey V. Kulemzin,
Natalia A. Kruglova,
Alexey G. Prilipov,
Vladimir P. Baklaushev,
Andrey A. Gorchakov,
Alexander V. Taranin,
Alexander V. Filatov
Affiliations
Ekaterina A. Astakhova
Laboratory of Immunochemistry, National Research Center Institute of Immunology, Federal Medical Biological Agency of Russia, 115522 Moscow, Russia
Maria G. Byazrova
Laboratory of Immunochemistry, National Research Center Institute of Immunology, Federal Medical Biological Agency of Russia, 115522 Moscow, Russia
Gaukhar M. Yusubalieva
Laboratory of Cell Technology, Federal Research and Clinical Center for Specialized Types of Medical Care and Medical Technologies of the FMBA of Russia, 115682 Moscow, Russia
Sergey V. Kulemzin
Laboratory of Immunogenetics, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
Natalia A. Kruglova
Laboratory of Gene Therapy of Socially Significant Diseases, Center for Precision Genome Editing and Genetic Technologies for Biomedicine, Institute of Gene Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 119334 Moscow, Russia
Alexey G. Prilipov
Laboratory of Immunochemistry, National Research Center Institute of Immunology, Federal Medical Biological Agency of Russia, 115522 Moscow, Russia
Vladimir P. Baklaushev
Laboratory of Cell Technology, Federal Research and Clinical Center for Specialized Types of Medical Care and Medical Technologies of the FMBA of Russia, 115682 Moscow, Russia
Andrey A. Gorchakov
Laboratory of Immunogenetics, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
Alexander V. Taranin
Laboratory of Immunogenetics, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
Alexander V. Filatov
Laboratory of Immunochemistry, National Research Center Institute of Immunology, Federal Medical Biological Agency of Russia, 115522 Moscow, Russia
Both SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination have previously been demonstrated to elicit robust, yet somewhat limited immunity against the evolving variants of SARS-CoV-2. Nevertheless, reports performing side-by-side comparison of immune responses following infection vs. vaccination have been relatively scarce. The aim of this study was to compare B-cell response to adenovirus-vectored vaccination in SARS-CoV-2-naive individuals with that observed in the COVID-19 convalescent patients six months after the first encounter with the viral antigens. We set out to use a single analytical platform and performed comprehensive analysis of serum levels of receptor binding domain (RBD)-specific and virus-neutralizing antibodies, frequencies of RBD-binding circulating memory B cells (MBCs), MBC-derived antibody-secreting cells, as well as RBD-specific and virus-neutralizing activity of MBC-derived antibodies after Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V) vaccination and/or natural SARS-CoV-2 infection. Overall, natural immunity was superior to Gam-COVID-Vac vaccination. The levels of neutralizing MBC-derived antibodies in the convalescent patients turned out to be significantly higher than those found following vaccination. Our results suggest that after six months, SARS-CoV-2-specific MBC immunity is more robust in COVID-19 convalescent patients than in Gam-COVID-Vac recipients. Collectively, our data unambiguously indicate that natural immunity outperforms Gam-COVID-Vac-induced immunity six months following recovery/vaccination, which should inform healthcare and vaccination decisions.
