Vaccines (Oct 2022)

Healthcare Worker Study Cohort to Determine the Level and Durability of Cellular and Humoral Immune Responses after Two Doses of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination

  • Chiara Dentone,
  • Daniela Fenoglio,
  • Marta Ponzano,
  • Matteo Cerchiaro,
  • Tiziana Altosole,
  • Diego Franciotta,
  • Federica Portunato,
  • Malgorzata Mikulska,
  • Lucia Taramasso,
  • Laura Magnasco,
  • Chiara Uras,
  • Federica Magne,
  • Francesca Ferrera,
  • Graziana Scavone,
  • Alessio Signori,
  • Antonio Vena,
  • Valeria Visconti,
  • Gilberto Filaci,
  • Alessandro Sette,
  • Alba Grifoni,
  • Antonio Di Biagio,
  • Matteo Bassetti

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10111784
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 11
p. 1784

Abstract

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We prospectively studied immunological response against SARS-CoV-2 after vaccination among healthcare workers without (group A) and with previous infection (group B). The analyses were collected at T0 (before the BNT162b2), T1 (before the second dose), T2 and T6 (1 and 6 months after the second dose). For cellular immune response, the activation-induced cell marker assay was performed with CD4 and CD8 Spike peptide megapools expressed as Stimulation Index. For humoral immune response, we determined antibodies to Spike-1 and nucleocapsid protein. The linear mixed model compared specific times to T0. The CD4+ Spike response overall rate of change was significant at T1 (p = 0.038) and at T2 (p p = 0.0265), and the p value for group comparison was significant at the baseline (p = 0.0030) with higher SI in previously infected subjects. Overall, the anti-S Abs significantly increased from T1 to T6 compared to T0. The group B at T6 retained high anti-S titer (p < 0.001). At T6, in both groups we found a persistent humoral response and a high CD4+ T cell response able to cross recognize SARS-COV-2 variants including epsilon, even if not a circulating virus at that time.

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