Humoral and Cellular Immunity Are Significantly Affected in Renal Transplant Recipients, following Vaccination with BNT162b2

oleh: Asimina Fylaktou, Stamatia Stai, Efstratios Kasimatis, Aliki Xochelli, Vasiliki Nikolaidou, Anastasia Papadopoulou, Grigorios Myserlis, Georgios Lioulios, Despoina Asouchidou, Maria Giannaki, Evangelia Yannaki, Georgios Tsoulfas, Aikaterini Papagianni, Maria Stangou

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2023-10-01

Deskripsi

Background. Renal transplant recipients (RTRs) tend to mount weaker immune responses to vaccinations, including vaccines against the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Methods. Humoral immunity was assessed using anti-receptor binding domain (RBD) and neutralizing antibodies (NAb) serum levels measured by ELISA, and cellular immunity was assessed using T-, B-, NK, natural killer-like T (NKT)-cell subpopulations, and monocytes measured by flow cytometry, and also specific T-cell immunity, at predefined time points after BNT162b2 vaccination, in 57 adult RTRs. Results. Administration of three booster doses was necessary to achieve anti-RBD and NAb protective levels in almost all patients (92.98%). Ab production, at several time points, was positively correlated with the corresponding renal function and inversely correlated with hemodialysis vintage (HDV) and treatment with mycophenolic acid (MPA). A gradual rise in several cell subpopulations, including total lymphocytes (<i>p</i> = 0.026), memory B cells (<i>p</i> = 0.028), activated CD4 (<i>p</i> = 0.005), and CD8 cells (<i>p</i> = 0.001), was observed even after the third vaccination dose, while a significant reduction in CD3+PD1+ (<i>p</i> = 0.002), NKT (<i>p</i> = 0.011), and activated NKT cells (<i>p</i> = 0.034) was noted during the same time interval. Moreover, SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cells were present in 41% of the patients who were unable to develop Nabs, and their positivity rates four months after the second dose were in inverse correlation with monocytes (<i>p</i> = 0.045) and NKT cells (<i>p</i> = 0.01). Conclusions. SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell responses preceded the humoral ones, while two booster doses were needed for this group of immunocompromised patients to mount a protective immune response.