Journal Article

Cross-reactive immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is low in pediatric patients with prior COVID-19 or MIS-C

Schuster, Jennifer E., Tremoulet, Adriana H., Pourhashemi, Sara, Rowan, Courtney M., Gertz, Shira J., Irby, Katherine, Schwartz, Stephanie P., Hecker, Julian, Tarquinio, Keiko M., Fitzgerald, Julie C., Chou, Janet, Crandall, Hillary, Cvijanovich, Natalie Z., Hume, Janet R., Lange, Christoph, Shein, Steven L., Chen, Sabrina R., Randolph, Adrienne G., Moon, Hye Kyung, Halasa, Natasha B., Maddux, Aline B., Bellusci, Lorenza, Khurana, Surender, Flori, Heidi R., Grubbs, Gabrielle, Mack, Elizabeth H., Burns, Jane C., Loftis, Laura L., Hobbs, Charlotte V., Coates, Bria M., Zinter, Matt S., Walker, Tracie C., Moffitt, Kristin, Tang, Juanjie, Zahra, Fatema Tuz, Shimizu, Chisato, Kong, Michele, Staat, Mary A., Novak, Tanya

2022

Overview

Neutralization capacity of antibodies against Omicron after a prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents is not well studied. Therefore, we evaluated virus-neutralizing capacity against SARS-CoV-2 Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron variants by age-stratified analyses (<5, 5–11, 12–21 years) in 177 pediatric patients hospitalized with severe acute COVID-19, acute MIS-C, and in convalescent samples of outpatients with mild COVID-19 during 2020 and early 2021. Across all patients, less than 10% show neutralizing antibody titers against Omicron. Children <5 years of age hospitalized with severe acute COVID-19 have lower neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 variants compared with patients >5 years of age. As expected, convalescent pediatric COVID-19 and MIS-C cohorts demonstrate higher neutralization titers than hospitalized acute COVID-19 patients. Overall, children and adolescents show some loss of cross-neutralization against all variants, with the most pronounced loss against Omicron. In contrast to SARS-CoV-2 infection, children vaccinated twice demonstrated higher titers against Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron. These findings can influence transmission, re-infection and the clinical disease outcome from emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants and supports the need for vaccination in children. The antibody response to the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is not well studied in children. Here, the authors provide an age-stratified analysis of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing capacity of sera from children with acute or convalescent COVID-19 as well as children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 631/250/2152/2153/1291 / 631/250/255/2514 / 631/326/590 / 631/326/596/4130 / 82/1 / 82/47 / Adolescent / Adolescents / Age / Antibodies / Antibodies, Viral / Antibody response / Child / Child, Preschool / Children / Coronaviruses / COVID-19 / COVID-19 - complications / Disease transmission / Hospitalization / Humanities and Social Sciences / Humans / Infections / Inflammation / Membrane Glycoproteins / multidisciplinary / Neutralization / Neutralization Tests / Neutralizing / Patients / Pediatrics / SARS-CoV-2 / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 / Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus / Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome / Vaccination / Viral diseases / Viral Envelope Proteins