BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Vaccines and Molecular Therapeutics
Robust neutralization of emerging JN.1 subvariants by the updated JN.1 vaccine: Rationale for catch-up booster recommendations in high-risk individuals
Provisionally accepted
Ju-yeon Choi1
Su-Hwan Kim1
Soyoung Park1Hye Min Jang1
Young Jae Lee1Hye-Jin Kim1
Dokeun Kim1
Jae-Hoon Ko2*
Hye-Sook Jeong1*- 1Korea National Institute of Health, Cheongju-si, Republic of Korea
- 2Samsung Medical Center Department of Infectious Diseases, Gangnam-gu, Republic of Korea
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The updated JN.1 monovalent vaccine (MoV) for the 2024-2025 season elicits strong cross-neutralizing activity against subsequently circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants in 2025, including the recently emerging NB.1.8.1, with titer increases comparable to those against the vaccine strain JN.1. The immune response induced by the JN.1 MoV was markedly stronger than that induced by XBB.1.5 MoV in the previous season, both against the vaccine strain and post-vaccine variant (all P < 0.001). These results likely reflect improved background immunity to circulating variants and support the use of catch-up booster vaccination during the summer surge, particularly for high-risk groups.
Keywords: COVID-19, Cross-reactive, JN.1 subvariant, neutralization, SARS-CoV-2
Received: 01 Sep 2025; Accepted: 05 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Choi, Kim, Park, Jang, Lee, Kim, Kim, Ko and Jeong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jae-Hoon Ko
Hye-Sook Jeong
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.