Antigenic Cartography Indicates That Omicron BA.1 and BA.4/BA.5 Variants Remain Antigenically Distant to Ancestral SARS-CoV-2 After Sputnik V Vaccination Followed by Homologous (Sputnik V) or Heterologous (Comirnaty) Revaccination

• DOI: 10.20944/preprints202305.1591.v1
• Publication Date: 2023-05-24T02:10:51Z
• Authors: Ekaterina A Astak...; Alexey A Morozov; Maria G Byazrova; Maria M Sukhova; Artem A Mikhailov; Andrey A Gorchakov; Alexander V Filatov

Rapid emergence of evasive SARS-CoV-2 variants is an on-going challenge for COVID-19 vaccinology. Traditional virus neutralization tests provide detailed datasets of neutralization titers against the viral variants. Such datasets are difficult to interpret and do not immediately inform on the sufficiency of the breadth of antibody response. Some of these issues could be tackled using the antigenic cartography approach. In this study, we created antigenic maps using neutralization titers of sera from donors who received Sputnik V booster vaccine after primary Sputnik V vaccination and compared them with the antigenic maps based on serum neutralization titers of Comirnaty-boosted donors. Traditional analysis of neutralization titers against WT, Alpha, Beta, Delta, Omicron BA.1 and BA.4/BA.5 showed a significant booster humoral response after both homologous (Sputnik V) and heterologous (Comirnaty) revaccinations against all the studied viral variants. However, despite this, a more in-depth analysis using antigenic cartography revealed that Omicron variants remain antigenically distant from WT, which is indicative of the formation of insufficient levels of cross-neutralizing antibodies. The implications of these findings may be significant when developing a new vaccine regimen.