Diminished Short- and Long-Term Antibody Response after SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination in Hemodialysis Patients

Füessl, Louise; Lau, Tobias; Lean, Isaac; Hasmann, Sandra; Riedl, Bernhard; Arend, Florian M.; Sorodoc-Otto, Johanna; Soreth-Rieke, Daniela; Toepfer, Marcell; Rau, Simon; Salihi-Halimi, Haxhrije; Paal, Michael; Beuthien, Wilke; Thaller, Norbert; Suttmann, Yana; Gersdorff, Gero von; Regenauer, Ron; Bergwelt-Baildon, Anke von; Teupser, Daniel; Brügel, Mathias; Fischereder, Michael und Schönermarck, Ulf (2022): Diminished Short- and Long-Term Antibody Response after SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination in Hemodialysis Patients. In: Vaccines, Bd. 10, Nr. 4

Abstract

Short-term studies have shown an attenuated immune response in hemodialysis patients after COVID-19-vaccination. The present study examines how antibody response is maintained after vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in a large population of hemodialysis patients from six outpatient dialysis centers. We retrospectively assessed serum antibody levels against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and nucleocapsid protein (electrochemiluminescence immunoassays, Roche Diagnostics) after COVID-19-vaccination in 298 hemodialysis and 103 non-dialysis patients (controls), comparing early and late antibody response. Compared to a non-dialysis cohort hemodialysis patients showed a favorable but profoundly lower early antibody response, which decreased substantially during follow-up measurement (median 6 months after vaccination). Significantly more hemodialysis patients had anti-SARS-CoV-2-S antibody titers below 100 U/mL (p < 0.001), which increased during follow-up from 23% to 45% but remained low in the control group (3% vs. 7%). In multivariate analysis, previous COVID-19 infections (p < 0.001) and female gender (p < 0.05) were significantly associated with higher early as well as late antibody vaccine response in hemodialysis patients, while there was a significant inverse correlation between patient age and systemic immunosuppression (p < 0.001). The early and late antibody responses were significantly higher in patients receiving vaccination after a SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to uninfected patients in both groups (p < 0.05). We also note that a higher titer after complete immunization positively affected late antibody response. The observation, that hemodialysis patients showed a significantly stronger decline of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination antibody titers within 6 months, compared to controls, supports the need for booster vaccinations to foster a stronger and more persistent antibody response.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Medizin ; Medizin > Klinikum der LMU München > Institut für Laboratoriumsmedizin
• Themengebiete: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften > 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
• Sprache: Englisch
• DFG: Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - 491502892