Ipsilateral and contralateral coadministration of influenza and COVID-19 vaccines produce similar antibody responses

David Pattinson; Peter Jester; Chunyang Gu; Lizheng Guan; Tammy Armbrust; Joshua G Petrie; Jennifer P King; Huong Q Nguyen; Edward A Belongia; Peter Halfmann; Gabriele Neumann; Yoshihiro Kawaoka

doi:10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105103

Ipsilateral and contralateral coadministration of influenza and COVID-19 vaccines produce similar antibody responses

EBioMedicine. 2024 Apr 3:103:105103. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105103. Online ahead of print.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathobiological Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
² Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, Marshfield, WI 54449, USA.
³ Department of Pathobiological Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA; Division of Virology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 108-0071, Japan; Department of Special Pathogens, International Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 108-0071, Japan. Electronic address: yoshihiro.kawaoka@wisc.edu.

Abstract

Background: World Health Organisation (WHO) and USA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC) recommendations now allow simultaneous administration of COVID-19 and other vaccines. We compared antibody responses after coadministration of influenza and bivalent COVID-19 vaccines in the same (ipsilateral) arm vs. different (contralateral) arms.

Methods: Pre- and post-vaccination serum samples from individuals in the Prospective Assessment of COVID-19 in a Community (PACC) cohort were used to conduct haemaglutination inhibition (HI) assays with the viruses in the 2022-2023 seasonal influenza vaccine and focus reduction neutralisation tests (FRNT) using a BA.5 SARS-CoV-2 virus. The effect of ipsilateral vs. contralateral vaccination on immune responses was inferred in a model that accounted for higher variance in vaccine responses at lower pre-vaccination titers.

Findings: Ipsilateral vaccination did not cause higher influenza vaccine responses compared to contralateral vaccination. The response to SARS-CoV-2 was slightly increased in the ipsilateral group, but equivalence was not excluded.

Interpretation: Coadministration of influenza and bivalent COVID-19 vaccines in the same arm or different arms did not strongly influence the antibody response to either vaccine.

Funding: This work was supported by the U.S. CDC (grant number: 75D30120C09259).

Keywords: COVID-19; Coadministration; Contralateral; Influenza; Ipsilateral; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccination.