Humoral Response to Hepatitis B and COVID-19 Vaccine among Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients

Abstract

Maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients have impaired immunological responses to pathogens and vaccines. In this study, we compared the humoral response to HBV and COVID-19 vaccines in a cohort of MHD patients. Demographic and clinical characteristics of vaccine responders and non-responders were also compared, and the association between the humoral responses to both vaccines was evaluated. The cohort included 94 MHD patients who were vaccinated at least once for HBV and twice for COVID-19. Among the 94 patients, 28 (29.8%) did not develop protective titers to HBV. Hypertension, coronary heart disease, and heart failure were more common in non-responders. Among MHD patients, 85% had positive IgG anti-spike SARS-CoV-2 levels 6 months after two doses of BNT162b2 (Pfizer/Biotech) vaccine. Age and immunosuppressive therapy were the main predictors of humoral response to COVID-19 vaccine. We did not find any association between non-responders to HBV and non-responders to COVID-19 vaccine. There was no difference in IgG anti-spike titers between HBV responders and non-responders (505 ± 644 vs. 504 ± 781, p = 0.9) Our results suggest that reduced humoral response to hepatitis B is not associated with reduced response to COVID-19 vaccine. Different risk-factors were associated with poor immune response to HBV and to COVID-19 vaccines.