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. 2021 Dec:298:114295.
doi: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2021.114295. Epub 2021 Sep 20.

Evaluation of the QuantiFERON SARS-CoV-2 interferon-ɣ release assay in mRNA-1273 vaccinated health care workers

Alexander Krüttgen  1 , Hanna Klingel  2 , Gerhard Haase  2 , Helga Haefner  2 , Matthias Imöhl  2 , Michael Kleines  2
Affiliations

Evaluation of the QuantiFERON SARS-CoV-2 interferon-ɣ release assay in mRNA-1273 vaccinated health care workers

Alexander Krüttgen et al. J Virol Methods. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Current studies focus on cellular and humoral immunity induced by novel SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Non-responders to vaccinations are not uncommonly encountered in clinical medicine (e.g. in the field of hepatitis B). Whereas vaccine-induced humoral immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is compromised by emerging Variants of Concern (VOCs), cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is emerging as resilient against VOCs. Thus commercially available test kits for diagnostic laboratories designed to evaluate cellular immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 are urgently needed. Here we evaluated the novel QuantiFERON SARS-CoV-2 assay (Qiagen) measuring INF-ɣ release induced by two spike-derived peptide pools (Ag1 and Ag2) in a cohort of health care workers vaccinated with the mRNA-1273 vaccine and confirmed humoral response. Our study indicates the usefulness of this novel assay for routine laboratories to evaluate cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2 in response to mRNA-1273 vaccination.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cellular immunity; SARS-CoV-2; Serology; Vaccination.

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Conflict of interest statement

We declare no conflict of interest

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Comparison of INF-ɣ release in vaccinees. The arrow indicates a cutoff of 0,15 IU/mL.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Analysis of Interferon-gamma release data for Ag1, Ag2 and positive control. Statistical analysis was performed using the program SPSS. “2″, “4″, “14″ indicate INF-y values of vaccinees 2, 4 and 14.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Surrogate Virus neutralization assay. Inhibition of ACE2:RBD binding by 1:10 diluted sera from our vaccinees (1–18) calculated as % in comparison to negative control sera not containing neutralizing activity.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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