J&J COVID-19 Vaccine Elicits Antibody Responses Against Variants

Johnson & Johnson recently announced that its COVID-19 vaccine elicited strong antibody and T-cell immune responses as long as eight months after vaccination.

The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the vaccine elicited dual mechanisms of protection against the virus, including against disease caused by B.1.617.2 and other SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.

The variants include B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P.1, B.1.429, B.1.617.1, and the original Wuhan strain. 

Overall, the data suggests an expansion of neutralizing antibodies over eight months, the observations of durable T-cell responses, and the suggestion of B-cell maturation. 

“These peer-reviewed data provide further and deeper insights into the durable humoral and cellular immune responses elicited by the single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, thus offering potentially a dual mechanism of protection against COVID-19 disease, including against the Delta variant and other variants of concern,” Mathai Mammen, MD, PhD, global head of research & development at Johnson & Johnson, said in the announcement. 

“Variant-specific neutralizing antibodies increased over the eight months examined after vaccination which suggests the maturation of B-cell responses. In addition, the T-cell responses are especially strong and stable over time, which is also potentially important for activity against these variants,” Mammen continued. 

The data extends previously published results in Nature, which stated the vaccine’s ability to elicit multiple components of the immune system in individuals. 

The results indicated that the potential efficacy of vaccines against COVID-19, including disease caused by variants, should be considered in a broader immunological context regarding the role of non-neutralizing antibodies, B- and T-cells, researchers explained.

And in July, Johnson & Johnson announced that its vaccine generated robust and persistent activity against the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant and other prevalent viral variants in a Phase 3 trial. 

The trial studied blood samples from participants and found that the vaccine was consistently effective across all regions studied globally, including in South Africa and Brazil.

Additionally, a single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine was 85 percent effective against severe/critical disease and demonstrated protection against hospitalization and death.

And Dan Barouch, MD, PhD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center also submitted data from the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine sub-study. 

Similar to the most recent findings, data showed that humoral and cellular immune responses generated by the vaccine lasted for at least eight months. T-cell responses, including CD8+ T-cells, also persisted over the eight-month timeframe.