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- Trivendra Tripathi et al.
- 26 September,2021
The Impact of New SARS-CoV-2 Variants on Vaccine Breakthrough: A Pilot Study on Spreading Infection in the Communities
https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.09.21.21263898
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Abstract
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) vaccines are effective at helping protect against
severe disease and death from variants; however, incident of breakthrough infection in vaccinated patients
has been increased. Therefore, we aimed to assess the incidence of severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) new variants of concern in the communities and investigate vaccine
breakthrough cases on our laboratory (Ayass Bioscience LLC) confirmed detection of COVID-19 variants
in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW), Texas.
Methods: Epidemiologic study has been performed at our laboratory. We studied the viral whole-genome
sequence and genotyping analysis on 166 symptomatic cases of COVID-19 which were randomly
selected from nasal swab positive cases assessed from June 1st to August 30th, 2021, by reverse
transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) cycle threshold (CT) values. COVID-19 variants were
identified to be dominated by B.1.617.2 (89.2%) and followed by AY.3 (1.8%), B.1.1.7 (4.8%), a
combination of B.1.526.1 and B.1.617.2 (3%), B.1.621 (0.6%), and P.2 (0.6%).
Result: The CT values showed significant difference among the three age groups: <30 years, 31-60 years,
and >60 years by one-way ANOVA (N1: F (2, 118) =4.96, p=0.009; N2: F (2, 118) =4.95, p=0.009). No
significant difference was observed by symptom, status of immunization, or vaccine manufacturer. A
two-way ANOVA was performed to examine the effect of gender and variant group (Delta and other
variants) on the CT values. The analyses revealed a statistically significant interaction between the effect
of gender and variant group (N1, F (1.117) = 3.906, p = 0.05; N2, F (1, 117) = 7.402, p = 0.008).
Conclusion: Our study shows that Delta, the dominant variant of COVID-19, is spreading in the
communities, and vaccine breakthrough cases occurred in the majority of Delta variant (91%) followed
by AY.3 (5%), B.1.1.7 (2%) and 2% of the double variant of B.1.526.1 and B.1.617.2. The incidence of
the breakthrough cases was not linked to a specific manufacturer. The CT value is likely to associate with
age. This study also supports our laboratory’s ongoing efforts to sequence the SARS-CoV-2 virus from
positive patient samples to identify the new viral variants and possible vaccine breakthrough mutations in
the community.
