Additional COVID vaccines may help protect transplant patients

A small study provides the first hint of an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine It may provide some organ transplant recipients with the necessary enhancement of protection.

While most vaccinated people are celebrating their return to near normal, millions of people taking immunosuppressive drugs for transplants, cancer, or other disorders It is unknown how well they are actually protected. Vaccines are simply difficult to improve the weak immune system.

The study on Monday tracked only 30 transplant patients, but it is an important step in learning if booster doses can help.

It didn’t help everyone. However, of the 24 patients who did not receive protection after two regular vaccinations, eight (third) developed antibodies that fight the virus after additional injections, researchers at Johns Hopkins University said. Reported to the Annals of Internal Medicine. And all the other six, who had minimal antibodies, got a big boost from the third dose.

“It’s very encouraging,” said Dr. Dolly Segev, a Hopkins transplant surgeon who helped lead the study. “A complete negative after two doses does not mean that there is no hope.”

Next Step: In collaboration with the National Institutes of Health, Segev’s team hopes to begin a more rigorous test of the third vaccination with 200 transplant recipients this summer.

For transplant patients, potent immunosuppressive drugs prevent rejection of new organs, but remain very vulnerable to the coronavirus. Although they were excluded from the initial testing of the COVID-19 vaccine, doctors are urging them to be vaccinated with the expectation of at least some protection.

Some bring benefits. Hopkins team recently tested more than 650 transplant recipients and found that after two doses of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, about 54% had antibodies that fight the virus.

It’s not just about post-organ transplant concerns. Dr. Alfred Kim of Washington University in St. Louis said a study of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and other autoimmune diseases found that 85% were developing antibodies. However, people who used certain types of immunosuppressive drugs produced dramatically lower levels of concern.

“We tell patients to act so that the vaccine doesn’t work like family and friends,” said Kim, who wants to test a third dose even in autoimmune patients. “This is very frustrating news for them.”

Doctors may give people with a weakened immune system additional vaccines, such as hepatitis B vaccinations.

In addition, guidelines published in France recommend a third COVID-19 shot for certain severely immunosuppressed people, including transplant recipients, Segev said.

The United States has not approved additional COVID-19 vaccination. However, more and more immunocompromised patients across the country are seeking their own third dose — those Hopkins tried to test.

In San Francisco, Gillian Laddo agreed to a blood test before and after the additional dose. Rudd, 48, who had a kidney and pancreas transplant, was afraid to leave the house after shooting Pfizer twice and learning that there were no measurable antibodies.

With an additional dose, “I got what I needed to survive,” Rudd said, but she’s still sticking to the mask and other precautions.

“I’m paying as much attention as I can, admitting I’m back in the living world,” she said.

To determine if a third dose really helps, who is the best candidate, if there is a brand difference, and if additional immune stimulation may increase the risk of organ rejection , Needs further research.

But Segev warns that boosters aren’t the only possibility. In addition to antibodies, vaccination usually spurs other protections such as T cells that can fend off severe illness. He and several other research groups are testing whether patients with weakened immunity can benefit from it.

For now, “the best way to protect these people is to get others vaccinated,” so you’re less likely to be exposed to the coronavirus, Kim emphasized at the University of Washington. ..

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The Associated Press’s Department of Health Sciences is supported by the Department of Science Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. AP is solely responsible for all content.