Persistence of Antibodies Against Spike Glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 in Healthcare Workers Post Double Dose of BBV-152 and AZD1222 Vaccines

Hari Ram Choudhary; Debaprasad Parai; Girish Chandra Dash; Jaya Singh Kshatri; Narayan Mishra; Prasanta Kumar Choudhary; Dipti Pattnaik; Kumudini Panigrahi; Susmita Behera; Nihar Ranjan Sahoo; Sreeparna Podder; Adyasha Mishra; Sunil Kumar Raghav; Sanjeeb Kumar Mishra; Subrat Kumar Pradhan; Subrat Kumar Sahoo; Matrujyoti Pattnaik; Usha Kiran Rout; Rashmi Ranjan Nanda; Nityananda Mondal; Srikanta Kanungo; Subrata Kumar Palo; Debdutta Bhattacharya; Sanghamitra Pati

doi:10.3389/fmed.2021.778129

Persistence of Antibodies Against Spike Glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 in Healthcare Workers Post Double Dose of BBV-152 and AZD1222 Vaccines

Front Med (Lausanne). 2021 Dec 22:8:778129. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2021.778129. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Hari Ram Choudhary¹, Debaprasad Parai¹, Girish Chandra Dash¹, Jaya Singh Kshatri¹, Narayan Mishra², Prasanta Kumar Choudhary², Dipti Pattnaik³, Kumudini Panigrahi³, Susmita Behera⁴, Nihar Ranjan Sahoo⁴, Sreeparna Podder⁵, Adyasha Mishra⁵, Sunil Kumar Raghav⁵, Sanjeeb Kumar Mishra⁶, Subrat Kumar Pradhan⁶, Subrat Kumar Sahoo¹, Matrujyoti Pattnaik¹, Usha Kiran Rout¹, Rashmi Ranjan Nanda¹, Nityananda Mondal¹, Srikanta Kanungo¹, Subrata Kumar Palo¹, Debdutta Bhattacharya¹, Sanghamitra Pati¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology, ICMR - Regional Medical Research Centre,Department of Health Research,Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, Bhubaneswar, India.
² The Chest Clinic, Brahmapur, India.
³ Department of Microbiology, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, India.
⁴ Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati College & Hospital, Berhampur, India.
⁵ DBT - Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, India.
⁶ Department of Community Medicine, Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Burla, India.

Abstract

Purpose: We investigated the persistence of the vaccine-induced immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) among healthcare workers (HCWs) in Odisha who received a complete dose of either Covaxin or Covishield vaccine. Methods: This 24-week longitudinal cohort study was conducted from January to July 2021 with participants from 6 healthcare and research facilities of Odisha to understand the dynamicity of the vaccine-induced IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 after the complete dose of vaccines. Results: Serum samples were collected from 614 participants during each follow-up and were tested in two chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay (CLIA)-based platforms to detect SARS-CoV-2 antibodies both qualitatively and quantitatively. Among these participants, 308 (50.2%) participants were Covishield recipients and the rest 306 (49.8%) participants took Covaxin. A total of 81 breakthrough cases were recorded and the rest 533 HCWs without any history of postvaccination infection showed significant antibody waning either from T3 (Covaxin recipient) or T4 (Covishield recipient). The production of vaccine-induced IgG antibodies is significantly higher (p < 0.001) in Covishield compared with Covaxin. Covishield recipients produced higher median anti-S IgG titer than Covaxin. No statistically significant differences in antibody titers were observed based on age, gender, comorbidities, and blood groups. Conclusion: This 6-month follow-up study documents a 2-fold and 4-fold decrease in spike antibody titer among Covishield and Covaxin recipients, respectively. The clinical implications of antibody waning after vaccination are not well understood. It also highlights the need for further data to understand the long-term persistence of vaccine-induced antibody and threshold antibody titer required for protection against reinfection.

Keywords: BBV-152 and AZD1222; SARS-CoV-2; healthcare worker; persistence; spike glycoprotein.

Copyright © 2021 Choudhary, Parai, Chandra Dash, Kshatri, Mishra, Choudhary, Pattnaik, Panigrahi, Behera, Ranjan Sahoo, Podder, Mishra, Raghav, Mishra, Pradhan, Sahoo, Pattnaik, Rout, Nanda, Mondal, Kanungo, Palo, Bhattacharya and Pati.