Poor neutralization and rapid decay of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 variants in vaccinated dialysis patients

PLoS One. 2022 Feb 10;17(2):e0263328. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263328. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Patients on dialysis are at risk of severe course of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Understanding the neutralizing activity and coverage of SARS-CoV-2 variants of vaccine-elicited antibodies is required to guide prophylactic and therapeutic COVID-19 interventions in this frail population. By analyzing plasma samples from 130 hemodialysis and 13 peritoneal dialysis patients after two doses of BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 vaccines, we found that 35% of the patients had low-level or undetectable IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S). Neutralizing antibodies against the vaccine-matched SARS-CoV-2 and Delta variant were low or undetectable in 49% and 77% of patients, respectively, and were further reduced against other emerging variants. The fraction of non-responding patients was higher in SARS-CoV-2-naïve hemodialysis patients immunized with BNT162b2 (66%) than those immunized with mRNA-1273 (23%). The reduced neutralizing activity correlated with low antibody avidity. Patients followed up to 7 months after vaccination showed a rapid decay of the antibody response with an average 21- and 10-fold reduction of neutralizing antibodies to vaccine-matched SARS-CoV-2 and Delta variant, which increased the fraction of non-responders to 84% and 90%, respectively. These data indicate that dialysis patients should be prioritized for additional vaccination boosts. Nevertheless, their antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 must be continuously monitored to adopt the best prophylactic and therapeutic strategy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antibodies, Neutralizing / blood
  • Antibodies, Neutralizing / immunology*
  • Antibody Affinity
  • CHO Cells
  • COVID-19 Vaccines / immunology
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Cricetulus
  • Dose-Response Relationship, Immunologic
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Humans
  • Immunoglobulin G / blood
  • Neutralization Tests*
  • Renal Dialysis*
  • Risk Factors
  • SARS-CoV-2 / immunology*
  • Vaccination*
  • mRNA Vaccines / immunology

Substances

  • Antibodies, Neutralizing
  • COVID-19 Vaccines
  • Immunoglobulin G
  • mRNA Vaccines

Supplementary concepts

  • SARS-CoV-2 variants

Grants and funding

The project was partially funded by the Swiss Kidney Foundation (to O.G.). R.K.G. received support from the G2P-UK National Virology consortium funded by MRC/UKRI (grant ref. MR/W005611/1).