Immune response (IgG) following full inoculation with BNT162b2 COVID‑19 mRNA among healthcare professionals

Abstract

Soon after the beginning of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic in December, 2019, numerous research teams, assisted by vast capital investments, achieved vaccine development in a fraction of time. However, almost 8 months following the initiation of the European vaccination programme, the need for prospective monitoring of the vaccine-induced immune response, its determinants and related side-effects remains a priority. The present study aimed to quantify the immune response following full vaccination with the BNT162b2 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mRNA vaccine by measuring the levels of immunoglobulin G (IgG) titers in healthcare professionals. Moreover, common side-effects and factors associated with IgG titers were identified. For this purpose, blood samples from 517 individuals were obtained and analysed. Blood sampling was performed at a mean period of 69.0±23.5 days following the second dose of the vaccine. SARS-CoV-2 IgG titers had an overall mean value of 4.23±2.76. Females had higher titers than males (4.44±2.70 and 3.89 ±2.84, respectively; P=0.007), while non-smokers had higher titers than smokers (4.48±2.79 and 3.80±2.64, respectively; P=0.003). An older age was also associated with lower antibody titers (P<0.001). Moreover, the six most prevalent adverse effects were pain at the injection site (72.1%), generalized fatigue (40.5%), malaise (36.3%), myalgia (31,0%), headache (25.8%) and dizziness/weakness (21.6%). The present study demonstrated that the immune response after receiving the BNT162b2 COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is dependent on various modifiable and non-modifiable factors. Overall, the findings of the present study highlight two key aspects of the vaccination programs: First, the need for prospective immunosurveillance studies in order to estimate the duration of immunity, and second, the need to identify those individuals who are at a greater risk of developing low IgG titers in order to evaluate the need for a third dose of the vaccine.

The Effect of Smoking on Humoral Response to COVID-19 Vaccines: A Systematic Review of Epidemiological Studies

“…The search strategy yielded a total of 833 articles. After the reading of the titles and abstracts, and the detection of those that met the exclusion criteria (Supplementary Materials, Table S1), 23 were selected for inclusion in this rapid systematic review, 17 being scientific articles and six being preprints [19,20,. Characteristics of included studies are presented in Table 1.…”

“…Along with immunization efforts, real-world data have been collected worldwide in order to confirm the safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, and to understand the impact of societal and health factors that might affect the massive vaccination campaigns [17,18]. Some of these analyses have described that vaccine-induced antibody titres are lower or decrease faster among smokers compared with nonsmokers, offering suggestions for further research about the impact of smoking on the humoral response to COVID-19 vaccines [19,20].…”

Seven-Month Analysis of Five SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Assay Results after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 Vaccination: Significant Decrease in SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Titer

“…There are few published data for mRNA vaccines, such as BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273, which were the first to obtain authorization in Europe and the United States [ 4 ]. A study determining IgG antibody levels 69 days after a two-dose BNT162b2 vaccination among healthcare professionals emphasizes the need for prospective immunosurveillance research [ 5 ]. A decline in antibody titers at three months after two doses of BNT162b2 in non-immunocompromised adults was reported [ 6 ].…”

“…To date, several vaccines have been developed, including those using viral proteins such as SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, DNA- and mRNA-based vaccines, and lipid-based mRNA nanoparticle vaccines [ 1 ]. The vaccines that have been administered most often are BNT162b2 (Pfizer, Inc., Collegeville, PA, USA), mRNA-1273 (Moderna, Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA), and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AstraZeneca., Lund, Sweden) vaccines [ 4 , 5 , 6 ].…”

Testing Antigens, Antibodies, and Immune Cells in COVID-19 as a Public Health Topic—Experience and Outlines

“…Their values after 6 days of detection (after seroconversion) would reach a plateau concentration and will no longer vary [ 30 ]. Vaccination has the same dynamics in antibodies as the infection [ 31 , 32 ].…”