To date, several reports have underlined low rates of antibody response to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. According to the authors of an article titled “Evaluation of the Kinetics of Antibody Response to COVID-19 Vaccine in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients: The Prospective Multicenter ORCHESTRA Cohort” (1) previous studies assessing the antibody response (AbR) to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients were limited by short follow-up, hampering the analysis of AbR kinetics.
The ORCHESTRA Cohort included 1062 SOT patients (kidney, 63.7%; liver, 17.4%; heart, 16.7%; and lung, 2.5%) and 5045 health care workers (HCWs). The Cohort was assessed for AbR at first dose, second dose, and within 3 ± 1 month after the first dose. The AbR rates in the SOTs and HCWs were 52.3% and 99.4%. The antibody levels were significantly higher in the HCWs than in the SOTs (p < 0.001). The kinetics showed an increase (p < 0.001) in antibody levels up to 76 days and a non-significant decrease after 118 days in the SOT recipients versus a decrease up to 76 days (p = 0.02) and a less pronounced decrease between 76 and 118 days (p = 0.04) in the HCWs.
Older age, other comorbidities, mycophenolate, steroids, and impaired graft function were associated with lower AbR probability. These results, say the authors, may be useful to optimize strategies of immune monitoring after COVID-19 vaccination and indications regarding timing for booster dosages calibrated on SOT patients’ characteristics.
Full text of article on the National LIbrary of Medicine web page at this link
Footnotes
1)The study is part (Workpackage 4) of the Horizon2020 ORCHESTRA project (https://orchestra-cohort.eu/ (accessed on 17 April 2022), which aims to create a new pan-European cohort to rapidly advance the knowledge on the COVID-19 infection. The project currently includes multiple cohorts, e.g., individuals at risk of infection, COVID-19 patients, HCWs, and fragile populations, such as SOT recipients, reaching a current total of more than 1,300,000 subjects at the time of writing of this manuscript.
Citation
Giannella M, Righi E, Pascale R, Rinaldi M, Caroccia N, Gamberini C, Palacios-Baena ZR, Caponcello G, Morelli MC, Tamè M, Busutti M, Comai G, Potena L, Salvaterra E, Feltrin G, Cillo U, Gerosa G, Cananzi M, Piano S, Benetti E, Burra P, Loy M, Furian L, Zaza G, Onorati F, Carraro A, Gastaldon F, Nordio M, Kumar-Singh S, Abedini M, Boffetta P, Rodríguez-Baño J, Lazzarotto T, Viale P, Tacconelli E, On Behalf Of The Orchestra Study Group Workpackage. Evaluation of the Kinetics of Antibody Response to COVID-19 Vaccine in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients: The Prospective Multicenter ORCHESTRA Cohort. Microorganisms. 2022 May 12;10(5):1021. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms10051021. PMID: 35630462; PMCID: PMC9147204.