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. 2022 Nov:169:107537.
doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2022.107537. Epub 2022 Sep 21.

Antibody response to COVID-19 vaccines among workers with a wide range of exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances

Anna K Porter  1 , Sarah E Kleinschmidt  2 , Kara L Andres  2 , Courtney N Reusch  2 , Ryan M Krisko  3 , Oyebode A Taiwo  2 , Geary W Olsen  2 , Matthew P Longnecker  4
Affiliations

Antibody response to COVID-19 vaccines among workers with a wide range of exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances

Anna K Porter et al. Environ Int. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a broad class of synthetic chemicals; some are present in most humans in developed countries. Several studies have shown associations between certain PFAS, such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), and reduced antibody concentration after vaccination against diseases such as Tetanus. Recent studies have reported associations between COVID-19 occurrence and exposure to certain types of PFAS. However, studies of antibody concentration after COVID-19 vaccination in relation to PFAS serum concentrations have not been reported. We examined COVID-19 antibody responses to vaccines and PFAS serum concentrations among employees and retirees from two 3M facilities, one of which historically manufactured PFOS, PFOA, and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS). Participants completed enrollment and follow-up study visits in the Spring of 2021, when vaccines were widely available. In total 415 participants with 757 observations were included in repeated measures analyses. Log-transformed concentrations of anti-spike IgG and neutralizing antibodies were modeled in relation to concentration of PFAS at enrollment after adjusting for antigenic stimulus group (9 groups determined by COVID-19 history and number and type of vaccination) and other variables. The fully adjusted IgG concentration was 3.45 percent lower (95% CI -7.03, 0.26) per 14.5 ng/mL (interquartile range) increase in PFOS; results for neutralizing antibody and PFOS were similar. For PFOA, PFHxS, and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), the results were comparable to those for PFOS, though of smaller magnitude. In our study data, the fully adjusted coefficients relating concentration of vaccine-induced antibodies to COVID-19 and interquartile range difference in serum concentration of PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS, and PFNA were inverse but small with confidence intervals that included zero. Our analysis showed that the coefficient for the four PFAS examined in detail was considerably affected by adjustment for antigenic stimulus group.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus disease 2019; PFAS; Perfluoroalkyl substances; Polyfluoroalkyl substances; Vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: AKP and MPL are employees of Ramboll. Their involvement in this project was funded through a contract between 3M and Ramboll, an international science and engineering company that provided salary compensation to these authors. None of these authors are currently engaged to testify as experts on behalf of the sponsors in litigation related to the compound discussed in this manuscript. SEK, KLA, CNR, RMK, OAT, and GWO are employees of 3M. 3M, the company that funded this research, previously used perfluorooctyl and perfluorohexyl chemistries in manufacturing. The final version of this manuscript was negotiated between the employees of Ramboll and 3M. The authors retained sole control of the manuscript content and the findings, and statements in this paper are those of the authors and not those of the authors’ employers.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Distribution of select per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) concentrations in serum as compared with data from the 2017–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Study data are from 415 participants; NHANES data are from 1,616 participants aged 20 and above, weighted estimates. Boxplot represents the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile, while whiskers represent the 5th and 95th percentile. See Table 2 for numerical values for the study group.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Serum antibody concentrations over time by select antigenic stimulus groups, restricted cubic spline of unadjusted analyses and 95% confidence interval. Data are from 377 participants, 596 observations. a. IgG antibody concentrations over time, ng/ml. b. Neutralizing antibody concentrations over time. VNT, virus neutralizing titer.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Restricted cubic spline models of the association between serum antibody concentrations and serum concentration of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), repeated measures. Data are from 415 participants, 757 observations. a. Predicted IgG antibody concentrations across concentrations of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS). b. Predicted neutralizing antibody concentrations across concentrations of PFOS. c. Predicted IgG antibody concentrations across concentrations of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). d. Predicted neutralizing antibody concentrations across concentrations of PFOA. e. Predicted IgG antibody concentrations across concentrations of perfluorohexanesulphonic acid (PFHxS). f. Predicted neutralizing antibody concentrations across concentrations of PFHxS. g. Predicted IgG antibody concentrations across concentrations of perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA). h. Predicted neutralizing antibody concentrations across concentrations of PFNA. Models adjusted for age, gender, race, BMI, site, smoking, immunocompromising conditions at enrollment, corticosteroid use in the past 30 days in the absence of immunocompromising conditions, time since antigenic stimulus, antigenic stimulus group, and interaction between antigenic stimulus group and time since antigenic stimulus. Association between linear PFOS and antibody concentrations not significant in adjusted models (p > 0.05, see Table 3); PFAS spline models fit no better than linear models.
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