Background: While vaccination programs against the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are globally ongoing, disparate strategies for the deployment of spike antigen show varying effectiveness.
Methods: In order to explore this phenomenon, we sought to compare the early immune responses against AZD1222 and BNT162b2. SARS-CoV-2 seronegative participants received a single dose of either vaccine and were analyzed for immune cell, effector T cell, and antibody dynamics.
Results: AZD1222 induced transient leukopenia and major changes among innate and adaptive subpopulations. Both vaccines induced spike protein-specific effector T cells which were dominated by type 1 helper T cell responses following AZD1222 vaccination. A significant reduction of anti-inflammatory T cells upon re-stimulation was also restricted to AZD1222 vaccinees. While IgM and IgG were the dominant isotypes elicited by AZD1222, BNT162b2 led to a significant production of IgG and IgA.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that the strategy for spike protein delivery impacts on how and to what extent immune priming against the main SARS-CoV-2 antigen proceeds.
Keywords: AZD1222; BNT162b2; COVID-19; Cytotoxic T cells; SARS-CoV-2; Type 1 helper T cells; Vaccination.
© 2022. The Author(s).