Does the SARS-CoV-2 variant BA.2.86 evade neutralizing antibodies compared to other circulating variants in vaccinated individuals?
The BA.2.86 variant does not exhibit massive neutralization escape compared to currently circulating variants like XBB.1.5, and prior XBB.1.5 infection boosts cross-neutralization, supporting the utility of updated monovalent boosters.
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant BA.2.86 has over 30 mutations in spike compared with BA.2 and XBB.1.5, which raised the possibility that BA.2.86 might evade neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) induced by vaccination or infection. In this study, we show that NAb titers are substantially lower to BA.2.86 compared with BA.2 but are similar or slightly higher than to other current circulating variants, including XBB.1.5, EG.5.1, and FL.1.5.1. Moreover, NAb titers against all these variants were higher in vaccinated individuals with a history of XBB.1.5 infection compared with vaccinated individuals with no history of XBB.1.5 infection, suggesting the potential utility of the monovalent XBB.1.5 mRNA boosters.
Lasrado et al. (Sat,) studied this question.