Vaccine-breakthrough infection by the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant elicits broadly cross-reactive immune responses

Abstract

Highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has posted a new crisis for COVID-19 pandemic control. Within a month, Omicron is dominating over Delta variant in several countries probably due to immune evasion. It remains unclear whether vaccine-induced memory responses can be recalled by Omicron infection. Here, we investigated host immune responses in the first vaccine-breakthrough case of Omicron infection in Hong Kong. We found that the breakthrough infection rapidly recruited potent cross-reactive broad neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) against current VOCs, including Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron, from unmeasurable IC50 values to mean 1:2929 at around 9-12 days, which were higher than the mean peak IC50 values of BioNTech-vaccinees. Cross-reactive spike- and nucleocapsid-specific CD4 and CD8 T cell responses were detected. Similar results were also obtained in the second vaccine-breakthrough case of Omicron infection. Our preliminary findings may have timely implications to booster vaccine optimization and preventive strategies of pandemic control.