Immunogenicity of standard and extended dosing intervals of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine

10.1016/j.cell.2021.10.011

Cell

Contributing to research themes:

Extension of the interval between vaccine doses for the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine was introduced in the UK to accelerate population coverage with a single dose. At this time, trial data was lacking, and we addressed this in a study of UK healthcare workers. The first vaccine dose induced protection from infection from the circulating alpha (B.1.1.7) variant over several weeks. In a sub-study of 589 individuals, we show that this single dose induces SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody (NAb) responses and a sustained B and T cell response to spike protein. NAb levels were higher after the extended dosing interval (6-14 weeks) compared to the conventional 3-4 week regimen, accompanied by enrichment of CD4+ T cells expressing IL2. Prior SARS-CoV-2 infection amplified and accelerated the response. These data on dynamic cellular and humoral responses indicate that extension of the dosing interval is an effective, immunogenic protocol.

Author list:

Rebecca P. Payne, Stephanie Longet, James A. Austin, Donal T. Skelly, Wanwisa Dejnirattisai, Sandra Adele, Naomi Meardon, Sian Faustini, Saly Al-Taei, Shona C. Moore, Tom Tipton, Luisa M. Hering, Adrienn Angyal, Rebecca Brown, Alexander R. Nicols, Natalie Gillson, Susan L. Dobson, Ali Amini, Piyada Supasa, Andrew Cross, Alice Bridges-Webb, Laura Silva Reyes, Aline Linder, Gurjinder Sandhar, Jonathan A. Kilby, Jessica K. Tyerman, Thomas Altmann, Hailey Hornsby, Rachel Whitham, Eloise Phillips, Tom Malone, Alexander Hargreaves, Adrian Shields, Ayoub Saei, Sarah Foulkes, Lizzie Stafford, Sile Johnson, Daniel G. Wootton, Christopher P. Conlon, Katie Jeffery, Philippa C. Matthews, John Frater, Alexandra S. Deeks, Andrew J. Pollard, Anthony Brown, Sarah L. Rowland-Jones, Juthathip Mongkolsapaya, Eleanor Barnes, Susan Hopkins, Victoria Hall, Christina Dold, Christopher JA. Duncan, Alex Richter, Miles Carroll, Gavin Screaton, Thushan I. de Silva, Lance Turtle, Paul Klenerman, Susanna Dunachie, on behalf of the PITCH Consortium