J&J COVID-19 booster shows increase in antibody and T-cell responses, in Phase II trial
pharmafile | December 6, 2021 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Â
Johnson & Johnson have announced positive results from an independent Phase II study, which reveal that a booster shot of the J&J vaccine, administered at six months after a two-dose primary regimen of BNT162b2 increased both antibody and T-cell responses significantly. The results have been published on medRxiv.
These results demonstrate the potential benefits of the J&J vaccine, as it could be very effective for heterologous (mix-and-match) boosting.
Both the J&J vaccine and BNT162b2 as boosters led to similar levels of neutralising and binding antibody levels against the original SARS-CoV-2 strain, as well as the Delta and Beta variants, four weeks after the boost. Despite this, after a mix-and-match booster dose of the J&J vaccine, antibodies still increased for at least four weeks, whereas antibodies declined from week two to week four after a heterologous boost with the BNT162b2 vaccine.
“There is early evidence to suggest that a mix-and-match boosting approach may provide individuals with different immune responses against COVID-19 than a heterologous boosting approach,” commented Dan Barouch, MD, PhD, Director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at BIDMC.
“In this preliminary study, when a booster dose of Ad26.COV2.S was given to individuals six months after a primary regimen with the BNT162b2 vaccine, there was a comparable increase of antibody responses at week four following the boost and a greater increase of CD8+ T-cell responses with Ad26.COV2.S compared with BNT162b2.”
The J&J vaccine is authorised for use under an Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for immunisation against COVID-19. The company is currently evaluating the effectiveness of the vaccine against the new and rapidly spreading Omicron variant.
Lina Adams
