Association of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, and E) status with humoral immune response to COVID-19 inactivated vaccination

Yao Deng; Liting Huang; Peixin Liu; Xuyang Geng; Zefang Lin; Zhixiong Zheng; Meixiao Zhan; Zhiren Zhang; Junwei Liu; Taoping Sun

doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1167920

Association of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, and E) status with humoral immune response to COVID-19 inactivated vaccination

Front Nutr. 2023 May 16:10:1167920. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2023.1167920. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yao Deng^#¹, Liting Huang^#¹, Peixin Liu^#², Xuyang Geng¹, Zefang Lin¹, Zhixiong Zheng¹, Meixiao Zhan¹, Zhiren Zhang¹, Junwei Liu^{1

3}, Taoping Sun¹

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tumor Interventional Diagnosis and Treatment, Zhuhai Precision Medical Center, Zhuhai People's Hospital, Zhuhai Hospital Affiliated with Jinan University, Zhuhai, China.
² Department of Orthopedic, Zhuhai People's Hospital, Zhuhai Hospital Affiliated with Jinan University, Zhuhai, China.
³ Party Committee of the Communist Party of China, Zhuhai Health Bureau, Zhuhai, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, and E) are essential for the proper functioning of the immune system and are of central importance for infection risk in humans. Vitamins A, D, and E have been reported to be associated with the immune response following vaccination; however, their effects on the immune response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccination remain unknown.

Methods: We measured the neutralizing antibody titers against wild type and omicron within 98 days after the third homologous boosting shot of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (BBIBP-CorV or CoronaVac) in 141 healthy adults in a prospective, open-label study. High-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy was used to determine the concentrations of plasma vitamins A, D, and E.

Results: We found that the anti-wide-type virus and anti-omicron variant antibody levels significantly increased compared with baseline antibody levels (P < 0.001) after the third vaccination. 25(OH)D₃ was significantly negatively associated with the baseline anti-wide-type virus antibody concentrations [beta (95% CI) = -0.331 (-0.659 ~ -0.003)] after adjusting for covariates. A potentially similar association was also observed on day 98 after the third vaccination [beta (95% CI) = -0.317 (-0.641 ~ 0.007)]. After adjusting for covariates, we also found that 25(OH)D₃ was significantly negatively associated with the seropositivity of the anti-omicron variant antibody at day 98 after the third vaccination [OR (95% CI) = 0.940 (0.883 ~ 0.996)]. The association between plasma 25(OH)D₃ with anti-wild-type virus antibody levels and seropositivity of anti-omicron variant antibodies were persistent in subgroup analyses. We observed no association between retinol/α-tocopherol and anti-wide-type virus antibody levels or anti-omicron variant antibody seropositive in our study.

Conclusion: The third inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination significantly improved the ability of anti-SARS-CoV-2 infection in the human body. Higher vitamin D concentrations could significantly decrease the anti-wide-type virus-neutralizing antibody titers and anti-omicron variant antibody seropositive rate after the inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in people with adequate levels of vitamin D, better immune status, and stronger immune response; further studies comprising large cohorts of patients with different nutritional status are warranted to verify our results.

Keywords: Omicron; SARS-CoV-2; cohort study; fat-soluble vitamins; neutralizing antibody; vaccine.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81903312) and the Xiangshan Talented Scientific Research Project of Zhuhai People's Hospital (2021XSYC-03).