Abstract
The escalation of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has required the development of safe and effective vaccines against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2-associated (SARS-CoV-2), which is the causative agent of the disease. Here, we determined the levels of antibodies, antigen-specific B cells, against a recombinant GFP-tagged SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein and total T and NK cell subsets in subjects up to 20 days after the injection of the BNT162b2 (Pfizer–BioNTech) vaccine using a combined approach of serological and flow cytometry analyses. In former COVID-19 patients and highly responsive individuals, a significant increase of antibody production was detected, simultaneous with an expansion of antigen-specific B cell response and the total number of NK-T cells. Additionally, through a genetic screening of a specific polymorphic region internal to the 3’ regulatory region 1 (3’RR1) of human immunoglobulin constant-gene (IgH) locus, we identified different single-nucleotide polymorphic (SNP) variants associated with either highly or lowly responsive subjects. Taken together, these results suggest that favorable genetic backgrounds and immune profiles support the progression of an effective response to BNT162b2 vaccination.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new viral infection, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2-associated (SARS-CoV-2) [1] and declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020
Emerging studies including the serological level of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in response to the BNT162b2 (Pfizer–BioNTech) mRNA vaccine have suggested that individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 have naturally acquired an immunity and proposed alternative approaches for the vaccination of former COVID-19 patients [8,30,31,33]
We have reported an association between the allelic variants and genotypes of polymorphic DNA region of the 30 regulatory region 1 in the human immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) locus with different antibody levels in response to BNT162b2 vaccine
Summary
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new viral infection, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2-associated (SARS-CoV-2) [1] and declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. The receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein plays an important role in the viral infection process, fostering the binding of the virus to host cells [6] This is the main target of the cellular and humoral immune response inducing the production of antigen-specific antibodies [7]. Recent studies have reported that a single dose of BNT162b2 vaccine induces anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies with a highly detectable titer [3,8,9,10,11] and expands specific T cell components, including TH 1 type CD4+ and IFNg+ CD8+ T cells [5,12,13,14]. These results support the efficacy of the BNT162b2 vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 and suggest that pre-existing innate and adaptive immune conditions might enforce the response to the vaccination
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
