Figure 3.

The Omicron spike shows high resistance against antibodies elicited upon infection or vaccination

(A) Particles bearing the indicated S proteins were preincubated (30 min, 37°C) with different dilutions of convalescent sera/plasma (n = 17) before being inoculated onto Vero cells. S-protein-driven cell entry was analyzed as described in Figure 1F. Black triangles indicate patients with severe disease that required admission to the intensive care unit; all other patients showed mild disease.

(B) The experiment was performed as described in (A) but sera from BNT/BNT-vaccinated individuals were analyzed (n = 11).

(C) The experiment was performed as described in (A) but sera from AZ/BNT-vaccinated individuals were analyzed (n = 10).

(D) The experiment was performed as described in (A) but sera from BNT/BNT/BNT-vaccinated individuals were analyzed (n = 10).

(A–D) Patient identifiers are indicated on the x axes. The reciprocal serum/plasma dilution factors that caused a 50% reduction in S protein-driven cell entry (neutralization titer 50, NT50) are shown. Left panels show individual NT50 values clustered per SARS-CoV-2 variant. Black lines and numerical values in brackets indicate median NT50 values, whereas right panels show serum/plasma-specific NT50 values ranked from highest to lowest based on NT50 for B.1. Numerical values indicate the median fold change in neutralization between individual SARS-CoV-2 variants. Dashed lines indicate the lowest serum dilution tested. Statistical significance of differences between individual groups was assessed by Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test: p > 0.05, not significant (ns); ^∗p < 0.05; ^∗∗p < 0.01; ^∗∗∗p < 0.001).