TUESDAY, June 15, 2021 (HealthDay News) — A third dose of COVID-19 vaccine may boost the antibody response in some solid organ transplant recipients, according to a research letter published online June 15 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
William A. Werbel, M.D., from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues describe antibody responses and vaccine reactions among 30 solid organ transplant recipients who had a suboptimal response to standard vaccination and received a third vaccine dose between March 20 and May 10, 2021.
The researchers found that at a median nine days before receiving their third dose of vaccine, 24 of the patients had negative antibody levels for anti-spike antibodies and six patients had low-positive antibody levels. Patients received the third vaccine dose at a median 67 days after dose 2: 15, nine, and six received the Ad26.COV2.S, mRNA-1273, and BNT162b2 vaccines, respectively. Antibody testing was repeated a median of 14 days after dose 3 of the vaccine. All six patients with low-positive antibody levels before dose 3 had high-positive levels after dose 3. Of the 24 patients with negative antibody levels before dose 3, six, two, and 16 had high-positive antibody levels, low-positive antibody levels, and remained negative, respectively.
“These observations support the use of clinical trials to determine whether booster doses to prevent COVID-19 in transplant patients can be incorporated into clinical practice, as they have been for hepatitis B and influenza vaccination,” the authors write.
One author disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
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