Infection and Drug Resistance (May 2022)
Evaluating the Response and Safety of Inactivated COVID-19 Vaccines in Liver Transplant Recipients
Abstract
Zhen-Hua Tu,1,* Ping-Bo Jin,1,* Di-Yu Chen,1 Zhi-Yun Chen,1 Zhi-Wei Li,1 Jie Wu,2 Bin Lou,3 Bao-Shan Zhang,4 Lin Zhang,1 Wei Zhang,1 Ting-Bo Liang1,5– 7 1Department of Surgery, Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310003, People’s Republic of China; 2State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Hangzhou, 310003, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Laboratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310003, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Nursing, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310003, People’s Republic of China; 5Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Pancreatic Disease, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310003, People’s Republic of China; 6Zhejiang Province Innovation Center for the Study of Pancreatic Diseases, Hangzhou, 310003, People’s Republic of China; 7Zhejiang University Cancer Center, Hangzhou, 310003, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Ting-Bo Liang, Department of Surgery, Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310003, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 571 8723 6601, Fax +86 571 8707 2577, Email [email protected]: To evaluate the response and safety of an inactivated vaccine (Sinovac Life Sciences Co., Ltd., Beijing, China) for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in liver transplant (LTx) recipients from China.Patients and Methods: Thirty-five recipients post LTx from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine who received inactivated vaccine from June to October 2021 were screened. Information regarding vaccine side effects and clinical data were collected.Results: Thirty-five LTx recipients were enrolled, with a mean age of 46 years, and most patients were male (30, 85.71%). All the participants had a negative history of COVID-19 infection. Predictors for negative response in the recipients were interleukin-2 receptor (IL-2R) induction during LTx, shorter time post LTx and application of a derivative from mycophenolate acid (MPA). No serious adverse events were observed during the progress of vaccination or after the vaccination.Conclusion: LTx recipients have a substantially partial immunological response to the inactivated vaccine for COVID-19. IL-2R induction during LTx, a shorter time post LTx and the application of a derivative from MPA seem to be predictors for a negative serological immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody response in recipients. The findings require booster vaccination in these LTx recipients.Keywords: liver transplantation, 2019-nCoV vaccination, SARS-CoV-2 infection, disease control, epidemiology, immune responses
