Humoral Immune Responses after an Omicron-Adapted Booster BNT162b2 Vaccination in Patients with Lymphoid Malignancies

Abstract

To accommodate waning COVID-19 vaccine immunity to emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, variant-adapted mRNA vaccines have been introduced. Here, we examine serological responses to the BA.1 and BA.4-5 Omicron variant-adapted BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccines in people with lymphoid malignancies. We included 233 patients with lymphoid malignancies (chronic lymphocytic B-cell leukemia: 73 (31.3%), lymphoma: 89 (38.2%), multiple myeloma/amyloidosis: 71 (30.5%)), who received an Omicron-adapted mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine. IgG and neutralizing antibodies specific for the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 were measured using ELISA-based methods. Differences in antibody concentrations and neutralizing capacity and associations with risk factors were assessed using mixed-effects models. Over the period of vaccination with an Omicron-adapted COVID-19 vaccine, the predicted mean concentration of anti-RBD IgG increased by 0.09 log10 AU/mL/month (95% CI: 0.07; 0.11) in patients with lymphoid malignancies across diagnoses. The predicted mean neutralizing capacity increased by 0.9 percent points/month (95% CI: 0.2; 1.6). We found no associations between the increase in antibody concentration or neutralizing capacity and the variant included in the adapted vaccine. In conclusion, a discrete increase in antibody concentrations and neutralizing capacity was found over the course of Omicron-adapted vaccination in patients with lymphoid malignancies regardless of the adapted vaccine variant, indicating a beneficial effect of Omicron-adapted booster vaccination in this population.

Keywords

• lymphoid malignancies
• COVID-19
• vaccine
• booster
• variant
• SARS-CoV-2