The association between antipyretic analgesics use and SARS-CoV-2 antibody titers following the second dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine: An observational study

Abstract

Antipyretic analgesics are used to manage and control symptoms occurring after vaccination, but may hamper immunogenicity or vaccine efficacy. We examined the association between prophylactic or therapeutic use of antipyretic analgesics and SARS-CoV-2 antibody titers for vaccine recipients. Data were obtained from 1,498 staff members of a medical and research institution in Tokyo, Japan, who had received the second dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine. We quantitatively measured anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein IgG titers in the participants three months after vaccination. The prophylactic and therapeutic use of antipyretic analgesics was ascertained via a questionnaire. A linear regression model was used to examine the association between antipyretic analgesic use and log-transformed anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein IgG titers. Based on model parameters, we estimated geometric mean titers (GMT) and the corresponding 95 % confidence intervals (CI). The results showed that IgG titers in vaccine recipients who used antipyretic analgesics therapeutically was higher than the titers in those who did not (geometric mean ratio [GMR] = 1.26, 95 % CI = 1.17-1.34) with GMTs being 6,147 (95 % CI = 5,833-6,460) and 4,895 (95 % CI = 4,676-5,115) for those who used antipyretic analgesics therapeutically and those who did not, respectively. The association was attenuated, but remained statistically significant after adjusting for symptoms (GMR = 1.14, 95 % CI = 1.06-1.23). We did not find any evidence of significant association in relation to the prophylactic use of antipyretic analgesics (GMR = 0.96, 95 % CI = 0.84-1.10), with GMTs being 5,245 (95 % CI = 4,577-5,913) and 5,452 (95 % CI = 5,258-5,645) for those who used antipyretic analgesics prophylactically and those who did not, respectively. In conclusion, we did not find any evidence of suppression of the humoral response after the second dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination by prophylactic or therapeutic use of antipyretic analgesics.

Keywords: Analgesics; BNT162 vaccine; COVID-19 vaccines; Japan.