SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC) have arisen independently at multiple locations^1,2 and may reduce the efficacy of current vaccines that target the spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2³. Here, using a live-virus neutralization assay, we compared the neutralization of a non-VOC variant with the 501Y.V2 VOC (also known as B.1.351) using plasma collected from adults who were hospitalized with COVID-19 during the two waves of infection in South Africa, the second wave of which was dominated by infections with the 501Y.V2 variant. Sequencing demonstrated that infections of plasma donors from the first wave were with viruses that did not contain the mutations associated with 501Y.V2, except for one infection that contained the E484K substitution in the receptor-binding domain. The 501Y.V2 virus variant was effectively neutralized by plasma from individuals who were infected during the second wave. The first-wave virus variant was effectively neutralized by plasma from first-wave infections. However, the 501Y.V2 variant was poorly cross-neutralized by plasma from individuals with first-wave infections; the efficacy was reduced by 15.1-fold relative to neutralization of 501Y.V2 by plasma from individuals infected in the second wave. By contrast, cross-neutralization of first-wave virus variants using plasma from individuals with second-wave infections was more effective, showing only a 2.3-fold decrease relative to neutralization of first-wave virus variants by plasma from individuals infected in the first wave. Although we tested only one plasma sample from an individual infected with a SARS-CoV-2 variant with only the E484K substitution, this plasma sample potently neutralized both variants. The observed effective neutralization of first-wave virus by plasma from individuals infected with 501Y.V2 provides preliminary evidence that vaccines based on VOC sequences could retain activity against other circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages.

SARS-CoV-2 相关变体 (VOC) 已在多个地点独立出现^1,2 ，可能会降低当前针对 SARS-CoV-2 刺突糖蛋白的疫苗的功效³ 。在这里，我们使用活病毒中和测定，使用从两波期间因 COVID-19 住院的成年人收集的血浆，比较了非 VOC 变体与 501Y.V2 VOC（也称为 B.1.351）的中和效果南非的第二波感染以 501Y.V2 变种感染为主。测序表明，第一波血浆捐献者感染的病毒不包含与 501Y.V2 相关的突变，除了受体结合域中包含 E484K 取代的感染之外。 501Y.V2 病毒变种被第二波感染者的血浆有效中和。第一波病毒变种被第一波感染的血浆有效中和。然而，501Y.V2 变体很难被第一波感染者的血浆交叉中和；与第二波感染者血浆中和 501Y.V2 相比，功效降低了 15.1 倍。相比之下，使用第二波感染者血浆对第一波病毒变种进行交叉中和更为有效，与使用第一波感染者血浆对第一波病毒变种进行中和相比，仅降低了 2.3 倍。尽管我们仅测试了感染 SARS-CoV-2 变体且仅进行 E484K 替换的个体的一份血浆样本，但该血浆样本有效中和了两种变体。 观察到的 501Y.V2 感染者血浆对第一波病毒的有效中和作用提供了初步证据，表明基于 VOC 序列的疫苗可以保留针对其他流行的 SARS-CoV-2 谱系的活性。