RNase2 is a possible trigger of acute-on-chronic inflammation leading to mRNA vaccine-associated cardiac complication

Background: Post-mRNA vaccination-associated cardiac complication is a rare but life-threatening adverse event. Its risk has been well balanced by the benefit of vaccination-induced protection against severe COVID-19. As the rate of severe COVID-19 has consequently declined, future booster vaccination to sustain immunity, especially against infection with new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants, may encounter benefit-risk ratios that are less favorable than at the start of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. Understanding the pathogenesis of rare but severe vaccine-associated adverse events to minimize its risk is thus urgent.

Methods: Here, we report a serendipitous finding of a case of cardiac complication following a third shot of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. As this case was enrolled in a cohort study, pre-vaccination and pre-symptomatic blood samples were available for genomic and multiplex cytokine analyses.

Findings: These analyses revealed the presence of subclinical chronic inflammation, with an elevated expression of RNASE2 at pre-booster baseline as a possible trigger of an acute-on-chronic inflammation that resulted in the cardiac complication. RNASE2 encodes for the ribonuclease RNase2, which cleaves RNA at the 3' side of uridine, which may thus remove the only Toll-like receptor (TLR)-avoidance safety feature of current mRNA vaccines.

Conclusions: These pre-booster and pre-symptomatic gene and cytokine expression data provide unique insights into the possible pathogenesis of vaccine-associated cardiac complication and suggest the incorporation of additional nucleoside modification for an added safety margin.

Funding: This work was funded by the NMRC Open Fund-Large Collaborative Grant on Integrated Innovations on Infectious Diseases (OFLCG19May-0034).