T cell immunity following COVID-19 vaccination in adult patients with primary antibody deficiency - a 22-month follow-up

Antti Hurme; Pinja Jalkanen; Minna Marttila-Vaara; Jemna Heroum; Heidi Jokinen; Saimi Vara; Oona Liedes; Johanna Lempainen; Merit Melin; Ilkka Julkunen; Leena Kainulainen

doi:10.3389/fimmu.2023.1146500

T cell immunity following COVID-19 vaccination in adult patients with primary antibody deficiency - a 22-month follow-up

Front Immunol. 2023 May 9:14:1146500. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1146500. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Antti Hurme^{1

2

3}, Pinja Jalkanen², Minna Marttila-Vaara¹, Jemna Heroum², Heidi Jokinen⁴, Saimi Vara⁵, Oona Liedes⁵, Johanna Lempainen^{2

4

6}, Merit Melin⁵, Ilkka Julkunen^{2

4}, Leena Kainulainen^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Infectious Diseases, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
² Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
³ Department of Internal Medicine, Lapland Central Hospital, Rovaniemi, Finland.
⁴ Clinical Microbiology, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland.
⁵ Department of Health Security, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.
⁶ Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland.

Abstract

Primary antibody deficiencies, such as common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), are heterogenous disease entities consisting of primary hypogammaglobulinemia and impaired antibody responses to vaccination and natural infection. CVID is the most common primary immunodeficiency in adults, presenting with recurrent bacterial infections, enteropathy, autoimmune disorders, interstitial lung diseases and increased risk of malignancies. Patients with CVID are recommended to be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, but there are relatively few studies investigating humoral and cellular responses to immunization. We studied the dynamics of humoral and cell-mediated immunity responses up to 22 months in 28 patients with primary immunodeficiency and three patients with secondary immunodeficiency receiving ChAdOx1, BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccines. Despite inadequate humoral response to immunization, we demonstrate a robust T cell activation likely protecting from severe COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; T cell mediated immunity; common variable immunodeficiency; humoral immunity; vaccine.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
BNT162 Vaccine
COVID-19 Vaccines
COVID-19* / prevention & control
Common Variable Immunodeficiency*
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases*
SARS-CoV-2
T-Lymphocytes
Vaccination

Substances

COVID-19 Vaccines
BNT162 Vaccine

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation (grant number 5360-ccfc to IJ), the Academy of Finland (grant number 336431 to MM and 336410 to IJ), Sigrid Jusélius Foundation (to IJ), the Turku University Hospital Research Foundation (to AH and JL) and The Research Foundation of Pulmonary Diseases (to AH).