Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.2 Delta variant replication, sensitivity to neutralising antibodies and vaccine breakthrough

Petra Mlcochova, Steven Kemp, Mahesh Shanker Dhar, Guido Papa, Bo Meng, Swapnil Mishra, Charlie Whittaker, Thomas Mellan, Isabella Ferreira, Rawlings Datir, Dami A. Collier, Anna Albecka, Sujeet Singh, Rajesh Pandey, Jonathan Brown, Jie Zhou, Niluka Goonawardne, Robin Marwal, Meena Datta, Shantanu Sengupta, Kalaiarasan Ponnusamy, Venkatraman Srinivasan Radhakrishnan, Adam Abdullahi, Oscar Charles, Partha Chattopadhyay, Priti Devi, Daniela Caputo, Tom Peacock, Chand Wattal, Neeraj Goel, Ambrish Satwik, Raju Vaishya, Meenakshi Agarwal, The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), The CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, The Genotype to Phenotype Japan (G2P-Japan) Consortium, Antranik Mavousian, Joo Hyeon Lee, Jessica Bassi, Chiara Silacci-Fegni, Christian Saliba, Dora Pinto, Takashi Irie, Isao Yoshida, William L. Hamilton, Kei Sato, Leo James, Davide Corti, Luca Piccoli, Samir Bhatt, Seth Flaxman, Wendy S. Barclay, Partha Rakshit, Anurag Agrawal, View ORCID ProfileRavindra K. Gupta
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.08.443253
Petra Mlcochova
1Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease (CITIID), Cambridge, UK
2Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Steven Kemp
1Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease (CITIID), Cambridge, UK
2Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
6University College London, London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Mahesh Shanker Dhar
3National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Guido Papa
4MRC – Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Bo Meng
1Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease (CITIID), Cambridge, UK
2Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Swapnil Mishra
5Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Jameel Institute, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Charlie Whittaker
5Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Jameel Institute, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Thomas Mellan
5Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Jameel Institute, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Isabella Ferreira
1Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease (CITIID), Cambridge, UK
2Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Rawlings Datir
1Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease (CITIID), Cambridge, UK
2Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Dami A. Collier
2Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
6University College London, London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Anna Albecka
4MRC – Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Sujeet Singh
3National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Rajesh Pandey
7CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jonathan Brown
8Department of Infectious Diseases, Imperial College London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jie Zhou
8Department of Infectious Diseases, Imperial College London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Niluka Goonawardne
8Department of Infectious Diseases, Imperial College London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Robin Marwal
3National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Meena Datta
3National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Shantanu Sengupta
7CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Kalaiarasan Ponnusamy
3National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Venkatraman Srinivasan Radhakrishnan
3National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Adam Abdullahi
1Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease (CITIID), Cambridge, UK
2Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Oscar Charles
6University College London, London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Partha Chattopadhyay
7CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Priti Devi
7CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Daniela Caputo
9NIHR Bioresource, Cambridge, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Tom Peacock
8Department of Infectious Diseases, Imperial College London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Chand Wattal
10Sri Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Neeraj Goel
10Sri Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ambrish Satwik
10Sri Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Raju Vaishya
11Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Meenakshi Agarwal
12Northern Railway Central Hospital, New Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Antranik Mavousian
13Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Joo Hyeon Lee
13Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, Cambridge, UK
14Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jessica Bassi
15Humabs Biomed SA, a subsidiary of Vir Biotechnology, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Chiara Silacci-Fegni
15Humabs Biomed SA, a subsidiary of Vir Biotechnology, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Christian Saliba
15Humabs Biomed SA, a subsidiary of Vir Biotechnology, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Dora Pinto
15Humabs Biomed SA, a subsidiary of Vir Biotechnology, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Takashi Irie
16Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima 7348551, Japan
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Isao Yoshida
17Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health, Tokyo 1690073, Japan
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
William L. Hamilton
2Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Kei Sato
18Division of Systems Virology, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 1088639, Japan
19CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Saitama 3220012, Japan
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Leo James
4MRC – Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Davide Corti
15Humabs Biomed SA, a subsidiary of Vir Biotechnology, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Luca Piccoli
15Humabs Biomed SA, a subsidiary of Vir Biotechnology, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Samir Bhatt
4MRC – Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
20Section of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Seth Flaxman
21Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Wendy S. Barclay
8Department of Infectious Diseases, Imperial College London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Partha Rakshit
3National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: rkg20@cam.ac.uk a.agrawal@igib.in partho_rakshit@yahoo.com
Anurag Agrawal
7CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi, India
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: rkg20@cam.ac.uk a.agrawal@igib.in partho_rakshit@yahoo.com
Ravindra K. Gupta
1Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease (CITIID), Cambridge, UK
2Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
22Africa Health Research Institute, Durban, South Africa
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Ravindra K. Gupta
  • For correspondence: rkg20@cam.ac.uk a.agrawal@igib.in partho_rakshit@yahoo.com
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant was first identified in the state of Maharashtra in late 2020 and spread throughout India, outcompeting pre-existing lineages including B.1.617.1 (Kappa) and B.1.1.7 (Alpha). In vitro, B.1.617.2 is 6-fold less sensitive to serum neutralising antibodies from recovered individuals, and 8-fold less sensitive to vaccine-elicited antibodies as compared to wild type Wuhan-1 bearing D614G. Serum neutralising titres against B.1.617.2 were lower in ChAdOx-1 versus BNT162b2 vaccinees. B.1.617.2 spike pseudotyped viruses exhibited compromised sensitivity to monoclonal antibodies against the receptor binding domain (RBD) and N-terminal domain (NTD), in particular to the clinically approved bamlavinimab and imdevimab monoclonal antibodies. B.1.617.2 demonstrated higher replication efficiency in both airway organoid and human airway epithelial systems as compared to B.1.1.7, associated with B.1.617.2 spike being in a predominantly cleaved state compared to B.1.1.7. Additionally we observed that B.1.617.2 had higher replication and spike mediated entry as compared to B.1.617.1, potentially explaining B.1.617.2 dominance. In an analysis of over 130 SARS-CoV-2 infected healthcare workers across three centres in India during a period of mixed lineage circulation, we observed substantially reduced ChAdOx-1 vaccine efficacy against B.1.617.2 relative to non-B.1.617.2. Compromised vaccine efficacy against the highly fit and immune evasive B.1.617.2 Delta variant warrants continued infection control measures in the post-vaccination era.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted August 06, 2021.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.2 Delta variant replication, sensitivity to neutralising antibodies and vaccine breakthrough
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.2 Delta variant replication, sensitivity to neutralising antibodies and vaccine breakthrough
Petra Mlcochova, Steven Kemp, Mahesh Shanker Dhar, Guido Papa, Bo Meng, Swapnil Mishra, Charlie Whittaker, Thomas Mellan, Isabella Ferreira, Rawlings Datir, Dami A. Collier, Anna Albecka, Sujeet Singh, Rajesh Pandey, Jonathan Brown, Jie Zhou, Niluka Goonawardne, Robin Marwal, Meena Datta, Shantanu Sengupta, Kalaiarasan Ponnusamy, Venkatraman Srinivasan Radhakrishnan, Adam Abdullahi, Oscar Charles, Partha Chattopadhyay, Priti Devi, Daniela Caputo, Tom Peacock, Chand Wattal, Neeraj Goel, Ambrish Satwik, Raju Vaishya, Meenakshi Agarwal, The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), The CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, The Genotype to Phenotype Japan (G2P-Japan) Consortium, Antranik Mavousian, Joo Hyeon Lee, Jessica Bassi, Chiara Silacci-Fegni, Christian Saliba, Dora Pinto, Takashi Irie, Isao Yoshida, William L. Hamilton, Kei Sato, Leo James, Davide Corti, Luca Piccoli, Samir Bhatt, Seth Flaxman, Wendy S. Barclay, Partha Rakshit, Anurag Agrawal, Ravindra K. Gupta
bioRxiv 2021.05.08.443253; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.08.443253
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.2 Delta variant replication, sensitivity to neutralising antibodies and vaccine breakthrough
Petra Mlcochova, Steven Kemp, Mahesh Shanker Dhar, Guido Papa, Bo Meng, Swapnil Mishra, Charlie Whittaker, Thomas Mellan, Isabella Ferreira, Rawlings Datir, Dami A. Collier, Anna Albecka, Sujeet Singh, Rajesh Pandey, Jonathan Brown, Jie Zhou, Niluka Goonawardne, Robin Marwal, Meena Datta, Shantanu Sengupta, Kalaiarasan Ponnusamy, Venkatraman Srinivasan Radhakrishnan, Adam Abdullahi, Oscar Charles, Partha Chattopadhyay, Priti Devi, Daniela Caputo, Tom Peacock, Chand Wattal, Neeraj Goel, Ambrish Satwik, Raju Vaishya, Meenakshi Agarwal, The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), The CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration, The Genotype to Phenotype Japan (G2P-Japan) Consortium, Antranik Mavousian, Joo Hyeon Lee, Jessica Bassi, Chiara Silacci-Fegni, Christian Saliba, Dora Pinto, Takashi Irie, Isao Yoshida, William L. Hamilton, Kei Sato, Leo James, Davide Corti, Luca Piccoli, Samir Bhatt, Seth Flaxman, Wendy S. Barclay, Partha Rakshit, Anurag Agrawal, Ravindra K. Gupta
bioRxiv 2021.05.08.443253; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.08.443253

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Microbiology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4683)
  • Biochemistry (10360)
  • Bioengineering (7675)
  • Bioinformatics (26336)
  • Biophysics (13528)
  • Cancer Biology (10686)
  • Cell Biology (15440)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (8497)
  • Ecology (12821)
  • Epidemiology (2067)
  • Evolutionary Biology (16857)
  • Genetics (11399)
  • Genomics (15478)
  • Immunology (10617)
  • Microbiology (25217)
  • Molecular Biology (10223)
  • Neuroscience (54468)
  • Paleontology (401)
  • Pathology (1668)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2897)
  • Physiology (4342)
  • Plant Biology (9247)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1586)
  • Synthetic Biology (2558)
  • Systems Biology (6781)
  • Zoology (1466)