The impact of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine on adaptive and innate immune responses

Konstantin Föhse; Büsra Geckin; Martijn Zoodsma; Gizem Kilic; Zhaoli Liu; Rutger J Röring; Gijs J Overheul; Josephine van de Maat; Ozlem Bulut; Jacobien J Hoogerwerf; Jaap Ten Oever; Elles Simonetti; Heiner Schaal; Ortwin Adams; Lisa Müller; Philipp Niklas Ostermann; Frank L van de Veerdonk; Leo A B Joosten; Bart L Haagmans; Reinout van Crevel; Ronald P van Rij; Corine GeurtsvanKessel; Marien I de Jonge; Yang Li; Jorge Domínguez-Andrés; Mihai G Netea

doi:10.1016/j.clim.2023.109762

The impact of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine on adaptive and innate immune responses

Clin Immunol. 2023 Oct:255:109762. doi: 10.1016/j.clim.2023.109762. Epub 2023 Sep 6.

Authors

Konstantin Föhse¹, Büsra Geckin¹, Martijn Zoodsma², Gizem Kilic¹, Zhaoli Liu², Rutger J Röring¹, Gijs J Overheul³, Josephine van de Maat¹, Ozlem Bulut¹, Jacobien J Hoogerwerf¹, Jaap Ten Oever¹, Elles Simonetti⁴, Heiner Schaal⁵, Ortwin Adams⁵, Lisa Müller⁵, Philipp Niklas Ostermann⁵, Frank L van de Veerdonk¹, Leo A B Joosten⁶, Bart L Haagmans⁷, Reinout van Crevel¹, Ronald P van Rij³, Corine GeurtsvanKessel⁷, Marien I de Jonge⁴, Yang Li⁸, Jorge Domínguez-Andrés¹, Mihai G Netea⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine and Radboud Center for Infectious Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
² Department of Computational Biology for Individualised Medicine, Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM), A Joint Venture Between the Helmholtz-Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and the Hannover Medical School (MHH), Hannover, Germany; TWINCORE, A Joint Venture Between the Helmholtz-Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and the Hannover Medical School (MHH), Hannover, Germany.
³ Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Laboratory of Medical Immunology, Radboud Center for Infectious Diseases, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
⁵ Institute of Virology, Medical Faculty, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf, Germany.
⁶ Department of Internal Medicine and Radboud Center for Infectious Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Department of Medical Genetics, Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
⁷ Department of Viroscience, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
⁸ Department of Internal Medicine and Radboud Center for Infectious Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Department of Computational Biology for Individualised Medicine, Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CiiM), A Joint Venture Between the Helmholtz-Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and the Hannover Medical School (MHH), Hannover, Germany; TWINCORE, A Joint Venture Between the Helmholtz-Centre for Infection Research (HZI) and the Hannover Medical School (MHH), Hannover, Germany.
⁹ Department of Internal Medicine and Radboud Center for Infectious Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 37673225
DOI: 10.1016/j.clim.2023.109762

Abstract

The mRNA-based BNT162b2 protects against severe disease and mortality caused by SARS-CoV-2 via induction of specific antibody and T-cell responses. Much less is known about its broad effects on immune responses against other pathogens. Here, we investigated the adaptive immune responses induced by BNT162b2 vaccination against various SARS-CoV-2 variants and its effects on the responsiveness of immune cells upon stimulation with heterologous stimuli. BNT162b2 vaccination induced effective humoral and cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2 that started to wane after six months. We also observed long-term transcriptional changes in immune cells after vaccination. Additionally, vaccination with BNT162b2 modulated innate immune responses as measured by inflammatory cytokine production after stimulation - higher IL-1/IL-6 release and decreased IFN-α production. Altogether, these data expand our knowledge regarding the overall immunological effects of this new class of vaccines and underline the need for additional studies to elucidate their effects on both innate and adaptive immune responses.

Keywords: BNT162b2; COVID-19; Innate immune response; SARS-CoV-2.