High Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 Variant of Concern Breakthrough Infections Despite Residual Humoral and Cellular Immunity Induced by BNT162b2 Vaccination in Healthcare Workers: A Long-Term Follow-Up Study in Belgium

To mitigate the massive COVID-19 burden caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), several vaccination campaigns were initiated. We performed a single-center observational trial to monitor the mid- (3 months) and long-term (10 months) adaptive immune response and to document breakthrough infections (BTI) in healthcare workers ( n = 84) upon BNT162b2 vaccination in a real-world setting. Firstly, serology was determined through immunoassays. Secondly, antibody functionality was analyzed via in vitro binding inhibition and pseudovirus neutralization and circulating re... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Bas Calcoen
Nico Callewaert
Aline Vandenbulcke
Winnie Kerstens
Maya Imbrechts
Thomas Vercruysse
Kai Dallmeier
Johan Van Weyenbergh
Piet Maes
Xavier Bossuyt
Dorinja Zapf
Kersten Dieckmann
Kim Callebaut
Hendrik Jan Thibaut
Karen Vanhoorelbeke
Simon F. De Meyer
Wim Maes
Nick Geukens
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
Reihe/Periodikum: Viruses, Vol 14, Iss 1257, p 1257 (2022)
Verlag/Hrsg.: MDPI AG
Schlagwörter: SARS-CoV-2 / BNT162b2 vaccine / long-term monitoring / healthcare workers / breakthrough infection / variants of concern / Microbiology / QR1-502
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-28971492
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.3390/v14061257

To mitigate the massive COVID-19 burden caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), several vaccination campaigns were initiated. We performed a single-center observational trial to monitor the mid- (3 months) and long-term (10 months) adaptive immune response and to document breakthrough infections (BTI) in healthcare workers ( n = 84) upon BNT162b2 vaccination in a real-world setting. Firstly, serology was determined through immunoassays. Secondly, antibody functionality was analyzed via in vitro binding inhibition and pseudovirus neutralization and circulating receptor-binding domain (RBD)-specific B cells were assessed. Moreover, the induction of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells was investigated by an interferon-γ release assay combined with flowcytometric profiling of activated CD4 + and CD8 + T cells. Within individuals that did not experience BTI ( n = 62), vaccine-induced humoral and cellular immune responses were not correlated. Interestingly, waning over time was more pronounced within humoral compared to cellular immunity. In particular, 45 of these 62 subjects no longer displayed functional neutralization against the delta variant of concern (VoC) at long-term follow-up. Noteworthily, we reported a high incidence of symptomatic BTI cases (17.11%) caused by alpha and delta VoCs, although vaccine-induced immunity was only slightly reduced compared to subjects without BTI at mid-term follow-up.