Prolonged Omicron-specific B cell maturation alleviates immune imprinting induced by SARS-CoV-2 inactivated vaccine
SARS-CoV-2 ancestral strain-induced immune imprinting poses great challenges to updating vaccines for new variants. Studies showed that repeated Omicron exposures could override immune imprinting induced by inactivated vaccines but not mRNA vaccines, a disparity yet to be understood. Here, we analyzed the immune imprinting alleviation in inactivated vaccine (CoronaVac) cohorts after a long-term period following breakthrough infections (BTI). We observed in CoronaVac-vaccinated individuals who experienced BA.5/BF.7 BTI, the proportion of Omicron-specific memory B cells (MBCs) substantially increased after an extended period post-Omicron BTI, with their antibodies displaying enhanced somatic hypermutation and neutralizing potency. Consequently, the neutralizing antibody epitope distribution encoded by MBCs post-BA.5/BF.7 BTI after prolonged maturation closely mirrors that in BA.5/BF.7-infected unvaccinated individuals. Together, these results indicate the activation and expansion of Omicron-specific naïve B cells generated by first-time Omicron exposure helped to alleviate CoronaVac-induced immune imprinting, and the absence of this process should have caused the persistent immune imprinting seen in mRNA vaccine recipients.
Authors
- Yunlong Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5918-1078)
- Yuanling Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5336-9886)
- Ronghua Jin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6035-2425)
- Weiliang Song
- Zhongyang Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9481-0407)
- Youchun Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9769-5141)
- Ayijiang Yisimayi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0648-1864)
- Fanchong Jian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8703-3507)
- Ran An (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7255-9426)
- Fei Shao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6439-0376)
- Xiaosu Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9424-2219)
- Sun Haiyan
- Yao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8315-3285)
- Jing Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4343-2527)
- Peng Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0391-7379)
- Lingling Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7911-3208)
- Yanli Xu
Institutions
- Capital Medical University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Nankai University (CN)
- Tianjin First Center Hospital (CN)
- Beijing Ditan Hospital (CN)
- Center for Life Sciences (CN)
- Tianjin Medical University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Emerging Microbes & Infections
- Published
- 2024-10-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/22221751.2024.2412623
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Immunodeficiency and Autoimmune Disorders
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.44
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China