Interpreting and addressing suboptimal immune responses after COVID-19 vaccination in solid-organ transplant recipients
Date:
07/15/2021
Citation:
Stock PG, Henrich TJ, Segev DL, Werbel WA. Interpreting and addressing suboptimal immune responses after COVID-19 vaccination in solid-organ transplant recipients. J Clin Invest. 2021 Jul 15;131(14):e151178. doi: 10.1172/JCI151178. PMID: 34143755; PMCID: PMC8279579.
Abstract
Transplant recipients were excluded from the initial clinical trials determining safety and efficacy of the landmark COVID-19 vaccines. Further, there is increasing evidence that immunosuppressed transplant recipients have a blunted antibody response to COVID-19 vaccination. In a concerning report by Sattler et al. in this issue of the JCI, kidney transplant recipients not only lacked a humoral response following two doses of Pfizer BNT162b2, but also displayed substantial impairment of the cellular response to SARS-CoV-2 antigens. This Commentary addresses potential strategies for transplant providers to evaluate and augment vaccine immunogenicity given the likelihood that COVID-19 will remain a world-wide threat to the health of transplant recipients.