Summary Background In recent months numerous health care professional acquired COVID-19 at the workplace resulting in significant shortages in medical and nursing staff. We investigated how prior COVID-19 affects SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and how such knowledge could facilitate frugal vaccination strategies. Methods In a cohort of 41 healthcare professionals with (n=14) and without (n=27) previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, we assessed the immune status before, during and after vaccination with BNT162b2. The humoral immune response was assessed by receptor binding domain ELISA and different SARS-CoV-2 neutralisation assays using wildtype and pseudo-typed viruses. T cell immunity against SARS-CoV-2 surface and nucleocapsid peptides were studied using interferon-γ release assays and intracellular flow cytometry. Vaccine-related side effects were captured. Findings Prior COVID-19 resulted in improved vaccine responses both in the B and T cell compartment. In vaccine recipients with prior COVID-19, the first vaccine dose induced high antibody concentrations comparable to seronegative vaccine recipients after two injections. This translated into more efficient neutralisation of virus particles, even more pronounced than expected from the RBD ELISA results. Furthermore, T cell responses were stronger in convalescents and particularly strong against the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein. Interpretation Herein, we corroborate recent findings suggesting that in convalescents a single vaccine dose is sufficient to boost adequate in vitro neutralisation of SARS-CoV-2 and therefore may be sufficient to induce adequate protection against severe COVID-19. New spike mutated virus variants render the highly conserved nucleocapsid protein – eliciting strong SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell immunity – an interesting additional vaccine target. Funding Christian Doppler Research Association, Johannes Kepler University Linz
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, vaccination, T cell immunity, Humoral response, pre-existing immunity, 【초록키워드】 viruses, Vaccine, Health care, severe COVID-19, Immunity, knowledge, SARS-COV-2 infection, variant, interferon, peptide, in vitro, flow cytometry, ELISA, nucleocapsid protein, Receptor binding domain, vaccine dose, BNT162b2, Cohort, T cell, Health, Workplace, nucleocapsid, vaccine response, T cell responses, Vaccination strategies, peptides, humoral immune response, Side effects, convalescent, university, neutralisation assay, Care, funding, T cell response, seronegative, neutralisation, SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, boost, Healthcare professional, Immune status, dose, antibody concentration, interferon-γ, Side effect, Johannes Kepler, Christian Doppler, Injections, virus particles, wildtype, recent findings, finding, mutated virus, recipient, single vaccine, RBD ELISA, neutralisation assays, Affect, resulting, conserved, investigated, facilitate, the RBD, induce, comparable, translated, expected, New, recent finding, Linz, the SARS-CoV-2, 【제목키워드】 Health, Care, T cell response, professional,