Abstract
Kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) have been considered as patients at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2-related disease severity, thus COVID-19 vaccination was highly recommended. However, possible interferences of different immunosuppression with development of both humoral and T cell-mediated immune response to COVID-19 vaccination have not been determined. Here we evaluated the association between mTOR-inhibitors (mTOR-I) and immune response to mRNA BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine in KTR. To this aim 132 consecutive KTR vaccinated against COVID-19 in the early 2021 were enrolled, and humoral and T cell-mediated immune response were assessed after 4-5 weeks. Patients treated with mTOR-I showed significantly higher anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG titer (p = .003) and higher percentages of anti-SARS-CoV-2 S1/RBD Ig (p = .024), than those without. Moreover, SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell-derived IFNγ release was significantly increased in patients treated with mTOR-I (p < .001), than in those without. Multivariate analysis confirmed that therapy with mTOR-I gained better humoral (p = .005) and T cell-mediated immune response (p = .005) in KTR. The presence of mTOR-I is associated with a better immune response to COVID-19 vaccine in KTR compared to therapy without mTOR-I, not only by increasing vaccine-induced antibodies but also by stimulating anti-SARS-CoV-2 T cell response. These finding are consistent with a potential beneficial role of mTOR-I as modulators of immune response to COVID-19 vaccine in KTR.
Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2 vaccine; kidney transplantation; mTOR inhibitors.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, Kidney transplantation, mTOR inhibitors., 【초록키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, Vaccine, COVID-19 vaccine, immune response, therapy, disease severity, Immunosuppression, anti-SARS-CoV-2, inhibitors, kidney, COVID-19 vaccination, anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG, Patient, Pfizer-BioNTech, T cell response, mRNA BNT162b2, association, Multivariate analysis, humoral, higher risk, IFNγ, recipient, significantly increased, enrolled, evaluated, treated, significantly higher, cell-mediated immune, patients treated, percentage, vaccinated against COVID-19, vaccine-induced antibody, were assessed, 【제목키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, Vaccine, kidney transplant recipient, cellular response, humoral, Messenger RNA, mTOR inhibitor, IMPROVE,