Cell Reports (Aug 2023)

Atypical B cells and impaired SARS-CoV-2 neutralization following heterologous vaccination in the elderly

  • Isabella A.T.M. Ferreira,
  • Colin Y.C. Lee,
  • William S. Foster,
  • Adam Abdullahi,
  • Lisa M. Dratva,
  • Zewen Kelvin Tuong,
  • Benjamin J. Stewart,
  • John R. Ferdinand,
  • Stephane M. Guillaume,
  • Martin O.P. Potts,
  • Marianne Perera,
  • Benjamin A. Krishna,
  • Ana Peñalver,
  • Mia Cabantous,
  • Steven A. Kemp,
  • Lourdes Ceron-Gutierrez,
  • Soraya Ebrahimi,
  • Paul Lyons,
  • Kenneth G.C. Smith,
  • John Bradley,
  • Dami A. Collier,
  • Laura E. McCoy,
  • Agatha van der Klaauw,
  • James E.D. Thaventhiran,
  • I. Sadaf Farooqi,
  • Sarah A. Teichmann,
  • Paul A. MacAry,
  • Rainer Doffinger,
  • Mark R. Wills,
  • Michelle A. Linterman,
  • Menna R. Clatworthy,
  • Ravindra K. Gupta

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 42, no. 8
p. 112991

Abstract

Read online

Summary: Suboptimal responses to a primary vaccination course have been reported in the elderly, but there is little information regarding the impact of age on responses to booster third doses. Here, we show that individuals 70 years or older (median age 73, range 70–75) who received a primary two-dose schedule with AZD1222 and booster third dose with mRNA vaccine achieve significantly lower neutralizing antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 spike pseudotyped virus compared with those younger than 70 (median age 66, range 54–69) at 1 month post booster. Impaired neutralization potency and breadth post third dose in the elderly is associated with circulating “atypical” spike-specific B cells expressing CD11c and FCRL5. However, when considering individuals who received three doses of mRNA vaccine, we did not observe differences in neutralization or enrichment in atypical B cells. This work highlights the finding that AdV and mRNA COVID-19 vaccine formats differentially instruct the memory B cell response.

Keywords