Cellular and humoral immune responses to COVID-19 booster vaccination in Japanese dialysis patients.

BACKGROUND

Dialysis patients are susceptible to developing severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to hypoimmunity. Antibody titers against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) after the primary vaccinations are lower in hemodialysis (HD) patients than in healthy individuals. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a SARS-CoV-2 booster vaccination in HD and peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients based on antibody titers and cellular and humoral immunity.

METHODS

Participants of the control, HD, and PD groups were recruited from 12 facilities. SARS-CoV-2 antigen-specific cytokine and IgG-antibody levels were measured. Regulatory T cells and memory B cells were counted using flow cytometry at 6 months after primary vaccination with BNT162b2 and 3 weeks after the booster vaccination in HD and PD patients and compared with those of a control group.

RESULTS

Booster vaccination significantly enhanced the levels of antibodies, cytokines, and memory B cells in three groups. The HD group showed significantly higher levels of IgG-antibodies, IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-17, and memory B cells than those in the control group at 3 weeks after the booster dose. The PD group tended to show similar trends to HD patients but had similar levels of IgG-antibodies, cytokines, and memory B cells to the control group.

CONCLUSIONS

HD patients had significantly stronger cellular and humoral immune responses than the control 3 weeks after the booster dose. Our findings will help in developing better COVID-19 vaccination strategies for HD and PD patients.