Divergent Antibody Repertoires Found for Omicron versus Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 Strains Using Ig-MS.

ABSTRACT

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (B.1.1.529) and its subvariants are currently the most common variants of concern worldwide, featuring numerous mutations in the spike protein and elsewhere that collectively make Omicron variants more transmissible and more resistant to antibody-mediated neutralization provided by vaccination, previous infections, and monoclonal antibody therapies than their predecessors. We recently reported the creation and characterization of Ig-MS, a new mass spectrometry-based serology platform that can define the repertoire of antibodies against an antigen of interest at single proteoform resolution. Here, we applied Ig-MS to investigate the evolution of plasma antibody repertoires against the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 in response to the booster shot and natural viral infection. We also assessed the capacity for antibody repertoires generated in response to vaccination and/or infection with the Omicron variant to bind to both Wuhan- and Omicron-RBDs. Our results show that (1) the booster increases antibody titers against both Wuhan- and Omicron- RBDs and elicits an Omicron-specific response and (2) vaccination and infection act synergistically in generating anti-RBD antibody repertoires able to bind both Wuhan- and Omicron-RBDs with variant-specific antibodies.