Correlation of vaccine-elicited antibody levels and neutralizing activities against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants

Liu, Jinbiao; Bodnar, Brittany H; Wang, Xu; Wang, Peng; Meng, Fengzhen; Khan, Adil I; Saribas, A Sami; Padhiar, Nigam H; McCluskey, Elizabeth; Shah, Sahil; Luo, Jin Jun; Hu, Wen-Hui; Ho, Wen-Zhe

Both Pfizer-BNT162b2 and Moderna-mRNA-1273 vaccines can elicit an effective immune response against SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, the elicited serum antibody levels vary substantially and longitudinally decrease after vaccination. We examined the correlation of vaccination-induced IgG levels and neutralization titers against newly emerged variants remains and demonstrate a significant reduction of neutralization activities against the variants (B.1.1.7, B.1.525, and B.1.351) in Pfizer or Moderna vaccined sera. There was a significant and positive correlation between serum IgG levels and ID50 titers for not only SARS-CoV-2 WT but also the variants. These findings indicate that a high level of anti-spike IgG may offer better protection against infection from SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. Therefore, it is necessary to longitudinally monitor specific serum IgG level for evaluating the protective efficacy of the vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 and its new variants.