Convergent CDR3 homology amongst Spike-specific antibody responses in convalescent COVID-19 subjects receiving the BNT162b2 vaccine

• Published in: Clinical immunology (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 237; p. 108963
• Main Authors: Wong, Matthew K., Liu, Jun T., Budylowksi, Patrick, Yue, Feng Yun, Li, Zhijie, Rini, James M., Carlyle, James R., Zia, Amin, Ostrowski, Mario, Martin, Alberto
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.04.2022; Published by Elsevier Inc
• Subjects: Antibodies; Antibodies, Viral - immunology; Antibody Formation; B cells; BNT162 Vaccine - immunology; Complementarity Determining Regions - genetics; COVID-19 - immunology; COVID-19 - prevention & control; COVID19; Humans; SARS CoV2; SARS-CoV-2; Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus - immunology; Antibodies; SARS CoV2; COVID19; B cells
• ISSN: 1521-6616; 1521-7035; 1521-7035
• DOI: 10.1016/j.clim.2022.108963

Convalescent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) subjects who receive BNT162b2 develop robust antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2. However, our understanding of the clonal B cell response pre- and post-vaccination in such individuals is limited. Here we characterized B cell phenotypes and the BCR repertoire after BNT162b2 immunization in two convalescent COVID-19 subjects. BNT162b2 stimulated many B cell clones that were under-represented during SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, the vaccine generated B cell clusters with >65% similarity in CDR3 VH and VL region consensus sequences both within and between subjects. This result suggests that the CDR3 region plays a dominant role adjacent to heavy and light chain V/J pairing in the recognition of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Antigen-specific B cell populations with homology to published SARS-CoV-2 antibody sequences from the CoV-AbDab database were observed in both subjects. These results point towards the development of convergent antibody responses against the virus in different individuals.