Li Le, Feng Tang, Shen Quan, Shi Xiaoshan, Wei Zhigong, Chen Wanze, Yang Fan, Zhu Yueting, Zhang Chengxin, Zhang Shuang, Zhang Qisi, Fu Shengwei, Wang Ning, Tian Wen-Xia, Liu Jiyan, Si Longlong
State Key Laboratory of Quantitative Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen 518055, China.
College of Veterinary Medicine, Shanxi Agricultural University, Jinzhong 030801, China.
Microorganisms. 2025 Mar 26;13(4):746. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms13040746.
The implementation of COVID-19 policy and the rapid development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in the early pandemic significantly contained numerous outbreaks and reduced the severity and mortality of COVID-19. However, the population immunity induced by existing vaccines was insufficient to prevent SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks. The host immunity induced by the wide spread of Omicron variants and its influence on emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants are attracting broad attention. In this study, a clinical data analysis of the patients indicated that pre-vaccination reduced inflammatory responses and mitigated the severity of COVID-19 cases caused by natural infection with Omicron BA.5.2. The analysis of adaptive immune responses indicated that natural infection with BA.5.2 induced robust and broad immune responses, including both humoral and T cell-mediated immune responses (IFN-γ) against highly conserved viral antigens, and provided cross-reactive neutralization against various viral variants. Collectively, we report that the natural infection with Omicron BA.5.2 induced broad cross-reactive immunity against SARS-CoV-2 variants, which suggests that the development of a live attenuated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine with desired safety, high efficacy, broad spectrum, and long-term immune persistence is feasible. Therefore, we suggest that herd immunity, achieved through vaccination with attenuated vaccines, combined with booster doses of existing vaccines and antiviral therapy for people with high viral loads, may contribute to the eradication of this virus.
新冠疫情政策的实施以及在疫情早期新冠病毒疫苗的迅速发展显著遏制了众多疫情爆发，并降低了新冠病毒感染疾病（COVID-19）的严重程度和死亡率。然而，现有疫苗诱导的群体免疫不足以预防新冠病毒的爆发。奥密克戎变种广泛传播所诱导的宿主免疫及其对新出现的新冠病毒变种的影响正引起广泛关注。在本研究中，对患者的临床数据分析表明，接种疫苗前可减轻炎症反应，并减轻由奥密克戎BA.5.2自然感染引起的COVID-19病例的严重程度。对适应性免疫反应的分析表明，BA.5.2的自然感染诱导了强大而广泛的免疫反应，包括针对高度保守病毒抗原的体液免疫和T细胞介导的免疫反应（IFN-γ），并提供了针对各种病毒变种的交叉反应中和作用。总体而言，我们报告奥密克戎BA.5.2的自然感染诱导了针对新冠病毒变种的广泛交叉反应性免疫，这表明开发一种具有理想安全性、高效性、广谱性和长期免疫持久性的减毒活新冠病毒疫苗是可行的。因此，我们建议通过接种减毒疫苗实现群体免疫，结合现有疫苗的加强剂量以及对高病毒载量人群进行抗病毒治疗，可能有助于根除这种病毒。
