Can reactogenicity predict immunogenicity after COVID-19 vaccination?

Area of Science:

• Immunology
• Vaccinology
• Public Health

Background:

• Understanding the relationship between vaccine reactogenicity and immunogenicity is crucial for vaccine development and public trust.
• Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines elicit local and systemic reactions in recipients.
• The correlation between these reactions and the resulting humoral immune response requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the association between local and systemic reactogenicity and humoral immunogenicity following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.
• To investigate potential links between adverse events and antibody production after receiving AstraZeneca (AZD1222) or Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2) vaccines.

Main Methods:

• Prospective evaluation of adverse events using electronic diaries in 135 healthy adults vaccinated with SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
• Semi-quantitative measurement of anti-S1 immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody levels via ELISA at multiple time points.
• Multivariate linear regression analysis to determine the association between adverse event severity and anti-S1 IgG levels, adjusting for covariates.

Main Results:

• Local and systemic adverse events were generally comparable between the AZD1222 and BNT162b2 vaccine groups.
• No statistically significant association was found between the grade of local or systemic adverse events and anti-S1 IgG levels in either vaccine group.
• The study included 135 healthy adults with a median age of 30 years.

Conclusions:

• Local and systemic reactogenicity following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination may not be directly associated with the level of humoral immunogenicity achieved.
• These findings suggest that the occurrence or severity of common vaccine side effects does not predict the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
• Further research may explore other factors influencing immunogenicity and long-term protection.