Scientific Reports (Sep 2023)

Humoral response to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine on in ABO blood type incompatible kidney transplant recipients treated with low-dose rituximab

  • Tomoko Hamaya,
  • Shingo Hatakeyama,
  • Tohru Yoneyama,
  • Yuki Tobisawa,
  • Hirotake Kodama,
  • Takeshi Fujita,
  • Reiichi Murakami,
  • Kazuyuki Mori,
  • Teppei Okamoto,
  • Hayato Yamamoto,
  • Takahiro Yoneyama,
  • Yasuhiro Hashimoto,
  • Hisao Saitoh,
  • Shunji Narumi,
  • Hirofumi Tomita,
  • Chikara Ohyama

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42406-5
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

Read online

Abstract We aimed to evaluate the humoral response after the second and third doses of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine in ABO blood type incompatible kidney transplant (KT) recipients treated with rituximab. This retrospective study conducted between June 2021 and June 2022 included 131 KT recipients and 154 nontransplant controls who had received mRNA vaccines. We compared the seropositivity (anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike IgG antibody titer ≥ 0.8 U/mL) after the second and third vaccinations. Furthermore, we evaluated the impact of pretransplant vaccination for seropositivity. Of the 131 KT recipients, 50 had received the third dose of mRNA vaccine. The antibody titer was significantly increased after the third dose of mRNA vaccine. The seropositivity rate after the third dose of mRNA vaccine increased from 36 to 70%. We observed no significant difference in seropositivity after the third dose of mRNA vaccine in ABO incompatibility, rituximab use, mycophenolate mofetil use, and age at KT. Of the nine recipients who had received the second or third dose of the mRNA vaccine prior to the KT, eight of the recipients were seropositive both before and after the KT. Our results suggest that ABO incompatibility or rituximab use was not significantly associated with seropositivity.