Vaccination Against SARS-CoV-2 Protects from COVID-19-induced Endothelial Dysfunction

Evangelos Oikonomou; Stamatios Lampsas; Nektarios Souvaliotis; Savvas Sarantos; Gerasimos Siasos; Garyphallia Poulakou; Thekla Lytra; Georgios Angelos Papamikroulis; Nikolaos Fountoulakis; Panagiotis Theofilis; Dionysios Tsoukalas; Maria Ioanna Gounaridi; Aikaterini Tsatsaragkou; Georgios Marinos; Dimitris Tousoulis; Manolis Vavuranakis

doi:10.2174/1381612829666221020154246

Vaccination Against SARS-CoV-2 Protects from COVID-19-induced Endothelial Dysfunction

Curr Pharm Des. 2022;28(39):3225-3230. doi: 10.2174/1381612829666221020154246.

Authors

Evangelos Oikonomou^{1

2}, Stamatios Lampsas¹, Nektarios Souvaliotis¹, Savvas Sarantos¹, Gerasimos Siasos^{1

2

3}, Garyphallia Poulakou⁴, Thekla Lytra¹, Georgios Angelos Papamikroulis¹, Nikolaos Fountoulakis³, Panagiotis Theofilis², Dionysios Tsoukalas¹, Maria Ioanna Gounaridi¹, Aikaterini Tsatsaragkou¹, Georgios Marinos², Dimitris Tousoulis², Manolis Vavuranakis¹

Affiliations

¹ 3rd Department of Cardiology, Medical School, Sotiria Chest Disease Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
² 1st Department of Cardiology, Medical School, Hippokration General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
³ Cardiovascular Division, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ 3rd Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School, Sotiria Chest Disease Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece.

PMID: 36278445
DOI: 10.2174/1381612829666221020154246

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) is implicated in endotheliitis, which adversely affects cardiovascular events. The impact of vaccination with COVID-19 on the clinical outcome of patients is documented.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of vaccination with COVID-19 on the severe acute respiratory syndrome, coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection-related endothelial impairment.

Methods: We enrolled 45 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 (either vaccinated or not against SARS-CoV-2). Clinical and laboratory data were collected, and brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) was evaluated. Subjects without COVID-19 were used as the control group.

Results: There was no difference in age (64.7 ± 7.5 years vs. 61.2 ± 11.1 years vs. 62.4 ± 9.5, p = 0.28), male sex (49% vs. 60% vs. 52%, p = 0.71), control subjects, vaccinated, and unvaccinated subjects with COVID-19, respectively. Of the patients with COVID-19, 44% were vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. Unvaccinated COVID-19 patients had significantly impaired FMD compared to vaccinated COVID-19 patients and Control subjects (2.05 ± 2.41 % vs. 7.24 ± 2.52% vs. 7.36 ± 2.94 %, p <0.001). Importantly, post hoc tests revealed that unvaccinated COVID-19 patients had significantly impaired FMD from both Vaccinated COVID-19 subjects (p <0.001) and from Control subjects (p <0.001). There was no difference in FMD between the control group and the vaccinated COVID-19 group (p = 0.99).

Conclusion: Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 present endothelial dysfunction in the acute phase of the disease. Endothelial function in unvaccinated patients with COVID-19 is impaired compared to control subjects as well compared to vaccinated patients with COVID-19. Vaccinated hospitalized subjects with COVID-19 do not show endothelial dysfunction, strengthening the protective role of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; endothelial function; endotheliitis; flow-mediated dilation; vaccination.

MeSH terms

Aged
COVID-19* / prevention & control
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
SARS-CoV-2
Vaccination
Vascular Diseases*