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. 2023 Oct 27;23(1):732.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-023-08728-5.

Kinetics of adaptive immune responses after administering mRNA-Based COVID-19 vaccination in individuals with and without prior SARS-CoV-2 infections

Sun-Woo Yoon  1 , Kristin Widyasari  2 , Jieun Jang  3 , Seungjun Lee  2   4 , Taejoon Kang  5   6 , Sunjoo Kim  7   8   9
Affiliations

Kinetics of adaptive immune responses after administering mRNA-Based COVID-19 vaccination in individuals with and without prior SARS-CoV-2 infections

Sun-Woo Yoon et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to compare the adaptive immune response in individuals with or without prior SARS-CoV-2 infections following the administration of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods: A total of 54 participants with ages ranging from 37 to 56 years old, consisting of 23 individuals without a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection (uninfected group) and 31 individuals with prior infection of SARS-CoV-2 (infected group) who have received two doses of mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccines were enrolled in this study. We measured the IFN-γ level upon administration of BNT162b2 (PF) or mRNA-1273 (MO) by QuantiFERON SARS-CoV-2. The production of neutralizing antibodies was evaluated by a surrogate virus neutralization assay, and the neutralizing capacity was assessed by a plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT50). The immune response was compared between the two groups.

Results: A significantly higher level of IFN-γ (p < 0.001) and neutralization antibodies (p < 0.001) were observed in the infected group than those in the uninfected group following the first administration of vaccines. The infected group demonstrated a significantly higher PRNT50 titer than the uninfected group against the Wuhan strain (p < 0.0001). Still, the two groups were not significantly different against Delta (p = 0.07) and Omicron (p = 0.14) variants. Following the second vaccine dose, T- and B-cell levels were not significantly increased in the infected group.

Conclusion: A single dose of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines would boost immune responses in individuals who had previously contracted SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: COVID-19; IFN-γ; Immune response; Neutralizing antibody; mRNA vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Diagram representing the study design
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
IFN-γ level after two doses of COVID-19 vaccines in individuals with or without prior SARS-CoV-2 infections. (a) The level of IFN-γ in response to the AG1 epitope. (b) The level of IFN-γ in response to the AG2 epitope. The dotted line indicates the cutoff value (0.2 IU/mL).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The percentage of inhibition after two doses of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines. The sera samples were diluted up to 1:20 before analysis. The dotted line indicates the cutoff value (30%)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Neutralizing activity in individuals with or without prior SARS-CoV-2 infections. (a) representing neutralizing activity against the Wuhan strain, (b) against the Delta variant, and (c) against the Omicron variant. The upper panel represents the plaque reduction from each serum dilution. The lower panel demonstrates the PRNT50 titer
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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