{"doi":"10.1126/sciimmunol.abi6950","title":"Distinct antibody and memory B cell responses in SARS-CoV-2 naïve and recovered individuals after mRNA vaccination","abstract":"Novel mRNA vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 have been authorized for emergency use. Despite their efficacy in clinical trials, data on mRNA vaccine-induced immune responses are mostly limited to serological analyses. Here, we interrogated antibody and antigen-specific memory B cells over time in 33 SARS-CoV-2 naïve and 11 SARS-CoV-2 recovered subjects. SARS-CoV-2 naïve individuals required both vaccine doses for optimal increases in antibodies, particularly for neutralizing titers against the B.1.351 variant. Memory B cells specific for full-length spike protein and the spike receptor binding domain (RBD) were also efficiently primed by mRNA vaccination and detectable in all SARS-CoV-2 naive subjects after the second vaccine dose, though the memory B cell response declined slightly with age. In SARS-CoV-2 recovered individuals, antibody and memory B cell responses were significantly boosted after the first vaccine dose; however, there was no increase in circulating antibodies, neutralizing titers, or antigen-specific memory B cells after the second dose. This robust boosting after the first vaccine dose strongly correlated with levels of pre-existing memory B cells in recovered individuals, identifying a key role for memory B cells in mounting recall responses to SARS-CoV-2 antigens. Together, our data demonstrated robust serological and cellular priming by mRNA vaccines and revealed distinct responses based on prior SARS-CoV-2 exposure, whereby COVID-19 recovered subjects may only require a single vaccine dose to achieve peak antibody and memory B cell responses. These findings also highlight the utility of defining cellular responses in addition to serologies and may inform SARS-CoV-2 vaccine distribution in a resource-limited setting.","journal":"Science Immunology","year":2021,"id":145145,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":734,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9478,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":105477,"name":"Sokratis A. 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Rosenfeld","orcid":"0000-0002-2266-0355","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":614829,"name":"Sarah Dysinger","orcid":"0000-0003-0687-0018","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":230177,"name":"Kendall A. Lundgreen","orcid":"0000-0003-2431-7152","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":105453,"name":"Leticia Kuri-Cervantes","orcid":"0000-0002-2432-9500","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":614838,"name":"Sharon Adamski","orcid":"0000-0001-5933-5292","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":392015,"name":"Amanda Hicks","orcid":"0000-0002-3496-1745","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":337992,"name":"Scott W. Korte","orcid":"0000-0003-0214-3374","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":105449,"name":"Derek A. Oldridge","orcid":"0000-0003-2177-5633","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":105448,"name":"Amy E. Baxter","orcid":"0000-0002-1555-0713","position":17,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":105447,"name":"Josephine R. 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Luning Prak","orcid":"0000-0002-9478-9211","position":26,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":230179,"name":"Paul Bates","orcid":"0000-0002-3918-5976","position":27,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":105476,"name":"Scott E. Hensley","orcid":"0000-0002-2928-7506","position":28,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":105450,"name":"Allison R. Greenplate","orcid":"0000-0002-2614-3072","position":29,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":36451,"name":"E. John Wherry","orcid":"0000-0003-0477-1956","position":30,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":6622,"name":"Rishi Raj Goel","orcid":"0000-0003-1715-5191","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":54,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:41:52.374756Z","pmid":"33858945","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}