COVID-19 Study

Antibody Responses to COVID-19 Vaccine

Total Antibody Score in Participants Vaccinated against COVID-19

The Total Antibody Score (TAS) measures the quantity of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

TAS values for each participant are shown as individual dots grouped by the number of months since vaccination.

The mean and standard deviation (grey bars and vertical lines, respectively) are shown for each time point.

If you received a vaccine against COVID-19, you can compare your TAS to those in the appropriate group based on how long ago you got vaccinated.

• Is your TAS close to the average, or above or below it? Is it within or outside the standard deviation for that group?

Time Post Vaccine Second Dose

These are example heat maps of the diversity of circulating antibodies in vaccinated participants, grouped by how long ago they received their second dose.

COVID-19 vaccine uses the virus’ Spike glycoprotein to elicit a protective immune response in the body. The rows numbered 1 – 21 each represent a unique target (epitope) on this protein. Each column represents a different participant. Each square is colored based on the level of antibodies (none, low, medium or high) against each target, detected in each participant’s sample.

• Note how some targets are recognized by many people, but others are less commonly recognized. We capture both the common and the rarer antibody types a person makes.
• Note how diverse people’s antibody responses are against the vaccine.
• Note how antibodies to some targets appear to be more long lived (like 13 and 15), and others are lost rapidly (like targets 2 – 5).

Before Booster Sample Taken

Effect of vaccine booster on circulating antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein

This figure shows pairs of samples collected before and after the participant received a vaccine booster shot.

For each pair, the Before sample was taken 4, 5 – 6 or 7 – 8 months after the second vaccine dose.

The After sample was taken between 2 weeks to 2 months after the booster shot.

• Note how the booster increases the amounts of low-level circulating antibodies for some targets.
• Note how it also brings back antibodies that were no longer detected in the blood. This does not necessarily mean that the antibodies were no longer present, as they could be at levels too low for us to detect.
• This data suggests that the vaccine boosters increase both the amount and the diversity of circulating antibodies.

Breakthrough Infections

• Of 551 participants vaccinated against COVID-19, 32 (5.8%) experienced breakthrough infections.
• Most commonly, breakthrough infections occurred 6 – 9 months after being fully vaccinated.