eJHaem (Aug 2024)

Analysis of B‐cell receptor repertoire to evaluate immunogenicity of monovalent Omicron XBB.1.5 mRNA vaccines

  • Yohei Funakoshi,
  • Kimikazu Yakushijin,
  • Goh Ohji,
  • Takaji Matsutani,
  • Kazuhiko Doi,
  • Hironori Sakai,
  • Tomoki Sasaki,
  • Takahiro Kusakabe,
  • Sakuya Matsumoto,
  • Yasuyuki Saito,
  • Shinichiro Kawamoto,
  • Katsuya Yamamoto,
  • Taiji Koyama,
  • Yoshiaki Nagatani,
  • Keiji Kurata,
  • Shiro Kimbara,
  • Yoshinori Imamura,
  • Naomi Kiyota,
  • Mitsuhiro Ito,
  • Hironobu Minami

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/jha2.932
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 4
pp. 661 – 668

Abstract

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Abstract Monovalent Omicron XBB.1.5 mRNA vaccines were newly developed and approved by the FDA in Autumn 2023 for preventing COVID‐19. However, clinical efficacy for these vaccines is currently lacking. We previously established the quantification of antigen‐specific antibody sequence (QASAS) method to assess the response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) vaccination at the mRNA level using B‐cell receptor (BCR) repertoire assay and the coronavirus antibody database (CoV‐AbDab). Here, we used this method to evaluate the immunogenicity of monovalent XBB.1.5 vaccines. We analyzed repeated blood samples of healthy volunteers before and after monovalent XBB.1.5 vaccination (BNT162b2 XBB.1.5 or mRNA‐1273.815) for the BCR repertoire to assess BCR/antibody sequences that matched SARS‐CoV‐2‐specific sequences in the database. The number of matched unique sequences and their total reads quickly increased 1 week after vaccination. Matched sequences included those bound to the Omicron strain and Omicron XBB sublineage. The antibody sequences that can bind to the Omicron strain and XBB sublineage revealed that the monovalent XBB.1.5 vaccines showed a stronger response than previous vaccines or SARS‐CoV‐2 infection before the emergence of XBB sublineage. The QASAS method was able to demonstrate the immunogenic effect of monovalent XBB.1.5 vaccines for the 2023–2024 COVID‐19 vaccination campaign.

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