1. Monitoring Humoral Response Following BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplantation Patients: A Single-Center Prospective Study along with a Brief Review of Current Literature
- Author
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John V. Asimakopoulos, Eleni Lalou, George Seferlis, Maria Malliarou, Eliana Konstantinou, Ioannis Drandakis, Ioannis Vasilopoulos, Angeliki N. Georgopoulou, Anastasia Kopsaftopoulou, Alexandros Machairas, Alexia Piperidou, Anestis Karapaschalidis, Maria-Ekaterini Lefaki, Dimitrios Galopoulos, Maria-Panagiota Arapaki, Panagiota Petsa, Ekaterini Benekou, Marina P. Siakantaris, Athanasios G. Papavassiliou, Panagiotis Tsaftaridis, Panayiotis Panayiotidis, Theodoros P. Vassilakopoulos, Angeliki Papapanagiotou, and Maria K. Angelopoulou
- Subjects
autologous transplantation ,COVID-19 pandemic ,stem-cell transplantation ,BNT162b2 vaccine ,SARS-CoV-2 ,hematologic malignancies ,Diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs ,RC633-647.5 - Abstract
Data on antibody response (AR) after vaccination against SARS-CoV2 in hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation setting (HSCT) were initially scarce, mainly due to the exclusion of such patients from approval studies. Shortly after the worldwide application of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in vulnerable populations such as patients with hematologic malignancies, limited single-center trials, including HSCT patients, were published. However, there was a great heterogeneity between them regarding the type of underlying malignancy, co-current treatment, type of vaccine, method of AR measurement, and time point of AR measurement. Herein, we present the results of a prospective study on AR after vaccination for SARS-CoV-2 using the BNT162b2 vaccine in a cohort of 54 HSCT recipients—mostly autologous from a single Unit—along with a broad review of the current literature. In our cohort, the AR positivity rate at 1 month was 80.8% and remained positive in 85.7% of patients at 3 months after vaccination. There were only nine non-responders, who were more heavily pretreated and more frequently hypogammaglobulinemic compared to responders. High antibody titers (AT), [AT ≥ 1000 U/mL], were detected in 38.5% and 30.6% of the patients at m1 and m3, respectively. A significant decline in AT between m1 and m3 was demonstrated—p < 0.0001; median AT1 and AT3 were 480.5 and 293 U/mL, respectively. A novel finding of our study was the negative impact of IgA hypogammaglobulinemia on response to vaccination. Other negative significant factors were treatment with anti-CD20 antibody at vaccination and vaccination within 18 months from HSCT. Our data indicate that HSCT recipients elicit a positive response to the BNT162b2 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 when vaccinated at 6 months post-transplant, and vaccination should be offered to this patient population even within the post-pandemic COVID-19 era.
- Published
- 2024
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