PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Henning Gruell
AU  - Kanika Vanshylla
AU  - Michael Korenkov
AU  - Pinkus Tober-Lau
AU  - Matthias Zehner
AU  - Friederike Münn
AU  - Hanna Janicki
AU  - Max Augustin
AU  - Philipp Schommers
AU  - Leif Erik Sander
AU  - Florian Kurth
AU  - Christoph Kreer
AU  - Florian Klein
TI  - Delineating antibody escape from Omicron variants
AID  - 10.1101/2022.04.06.487257
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.04.06.487257
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/04/06/2022.04.06.487257.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/04/06/2022.04.06.487257.full
AB  - SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies play a critical role for protection and treatment of COVID-19. Viral antibody evasion therefore threatens essential prophylactic and therapeutic measures. The high number of mutations in the Omicron BA.1 sublineage results in markedly reduced neutralization susceptibility. Consistently, Omicron is associated with lower vaccine effectiveness and a high re-infection rate. Notably, newly emerging Omicron sublineages (BA.1.1, BA.2) have rapidly become dominant. Here, we determine polyclonal serum activity against BA.1, BA.1.1 and BA.2 in 50 convalescent or vaccinated individuals as well as delineate antibody sensitivities on a monoclonal level using 163 antibodies. Our study reveals a significant but comparable reduction of serum activity against Omicron sublineages which markedly increases after booster immunization. However, notable differences in sensitivity to individual antibodies demonstrate distinct escape patterns of BA.1 and BA.2 that also affect antibodies in clinical use. The results have strong implications for vaccination strategies and antibody use in prophylaxis and therapy.Competing Interest StatementH.G., K.V., M.Z., C.K., and F. Klein are listed as inventors on patent applications on SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies encompassing aspects of this work filed by the University of Cologne.