Immune responses to a single dose of the AZD1222/Covishield vaccine in health care workers.
Jeewandara C., Kamaladasa A., Pushpakumara PD., Jayathilaka D., Aberathna IS., Danasekara DRSR., Guruge D., Ranasinghe T., Dayarathna S., Pathmanathan T., Somathilake G., Deshan Madhusanka PA., Ramu ST., Pramanayagam Jayadas TT., Kuruppu H., Wijesinghe A., Thashmi Nimasha HM., Milroy D., Nandasena AA., Nilanka Sanjeewani PKG., Wijayamuni R., Samaraweera S., Schimanski L., Tan TK., Dong T., Ogg GS., Townsend A., Malavige GN.
Several COVID-19 vaccines have received emergency approval. Here we assess the immunogenicity of a single dose of the AZD1222 vaccine, at one month, in a cohort of health care workers (HCWs) (629 naïve and 26 previously infected). 93.4% of naïve HCWs seroconverted, irrespective of age and gender. Haemagglutination test for antibodies to the receptor binding domain (RBD), surrogate neutralization assay (sVNT) and ex vivo IFNγ ELISpot assays were carried out in a sub-cohort. ACE2 blocking antibodies (measured by sVNT) were detected in 67/69 (97.1%) of naïve HCWs. Antibody levels to the RBD of the wild-type virus were higher than to RBD of B.1.1.7, and titres to B.1.351 were very low. Ex vivo T cell responses were observed in 30.8% to 61.7% in naïve HCWs. Previously infected HCWs, developed significantly higher (p