Vaccines (Jun 2022)

Promising Efficacy of a Third Dose of mRNA SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination in Patients Treated with Anti-CD20 Antibody Who Failed 2-Dose Vaccination

  • Yohei Funakoshi,
  • Kimikazu Yakushijin,
  • Goh Ohji,
  • Wataru Hojo,
  • Hironori Sakai,
  • Marika Watanabe,
  • Akihito Kitao,
  • Yoshiharu Miyata,
  • Yasuyuki Saito,
  • Shinichiro Kawamoto,
  • Katsuya Yamamoto,
  • Mitsuhiro Ito,
  • Taiji Koyama,
  • Yoshinori Imamura,
  • Naomi Kiyota,
  • Hiroshi Matsuoka,
  • Yasuko Mori,
  • Hironobu Minami

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10060965
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 6
p. 965

Abstract

Read online

Anti-CD20 antibodies react with CD20 expressed not only on malignant B cells, but also on normal B cells. It has been reported that patients treated with anti-CD20 antibodies had an insufficient response to two-dose mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. To investigate the efficacy of a third dose in these patients, we investigated serum IgG antibody titers for the S1 protein after a third vaccination in 22 patients treated with the anti-CD20 antibody who failed two-dose vaccination. Results showed that overall, 50% of patients seroconverted. Although no patient who received the third dose within 1 year of the last anti-CD20 antibody administration showed an increase in S1 antibody titer, 69% of patients who received the third dose more than 1 year after the last anti-CD20 antibody administration seroconverted. Our data show that a third dose of vaccination is effective in improving the seroconversion rate in patients treated with the anti-CD20 antibody who failed standard two-dose vaccination.

Keywords