PLoS Medicine (May 2022)

Antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2 variants induced by four different SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in health care workers in the Netherlands: A prospective cohort study.

  • Marit J van Gils,
  • Ayesha Lavell,
  • Karlijn van der Straten,
  • Brent Appelman,
  • Ilja Bontjer,
  • Meliawati Poniman,
  • Judith A Burger,
  • Melissa Oomen,
  • Joey H Bouhuijs,
  • Lonneke A van Vught,
  • Marleen A Slim,
  • Michiel Schinkel,
  • Elke Wynberg,
  • Hugo D G van Willigen,
  • Marloes Grobben,
  • Khadija Tejjani,
  • Jacqueline van Rijswijk,
  • Jonne L Snitselaar,
  • Tom G Caniels,
  • Amsterdam UMC COVID-19 S3/HCW study group,
  • Alexander P J Vlaar,
  • Maria Prins,
  • Menno D de Jong,
  • Godelieve J de Bree,
  • Jonne J Sikkens,
  • Marije K Bomers,
  • Rogier W Sanders

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003991
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 19, no. 5
p. e1003991

Abstract

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BackgroundEmerging and future SARS-CoV-2 variants may jeopardize the effectiveness of vaccination campaigns. Therefore, it is important to know how the different vaccines perform against diverse SARS-CoV-2 variants.Methods and findingsIn a prospective cohort of 165 SARS-CoV-2 naive health care workers in the Netherlands, vaccinated with either one of four vaccines (BNT162b2, mRNA-1273, AZD1222 or Ad26.COV2.S), we performed a head-to-head comparison of the ability of sera to recognize and neutralize SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs; Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron). Repeated serum sampling was performed 5 times during a year (from January 2021 till January 2022), including before and after booster vaccination with BNT162b2. Four weeks after completing the initial vaccination series, SARS-CoV-2 wild-type neutralizing antibody titers were highest in recipients of mRNA-1273, followed by recipients of BNT162b2 (geometric mean titers (GMT) of 358 [95% CI 231-556] and 214 [95% CI 153-299], respectively; pConclusionsOverall, this study shows that the mRNA vaccines appear superior to adenovirus vector-based vaccines in inducing neutralizing antibodies against VOCs four weeks after initial vaccination and after booster vaccination, which implies the use of mRNA vaccines for both initial and booster vaccination.