HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Aug. 16, 2021 (HealthDay Information) — COVID-19 vaccination triggers a powerful immune response in folks with HIV, that means they’re doubtless protected towards the coronavirus, a brand new, small research exhibits.
“Earlier analysis has prompt a suboptimal response to COVID-19 vaccines in folks living with HIV; nevertheless, these research didn’t totally characterize and outline that response, each for mobile [where the immune system directly attacks infected cells] and humoral [where the immune system circulates virus-fighting antibodies] immunity,” stated senior research creator Dr. Joel Blankson. He’s a professor of drugs on the Johns Hopkins College College of Medication, in Baltimore.
“What we discovered with the broadly used Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was simply the alternative, because it induces sturdy immune responses in folks dwelling with HIV, similar to these seen in wholesome folks,” he defined in a Hopkins information launch.
For the research, Blankson and his colleagues analyzed blood samples collected from seven girls and 5 males with HIV and from seven girls and 10 males with out HIV between seven and 17 days after they acquired their second dose of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine.
Not one of the members had proof of prior an infection with the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19.
The entire folks with HIV had been on antiretroviral remedy and had a median CD4+ T-cell rely of 913 cells per microliter. Ranges of those immune cells in a wholesome grownup are between 500 to 1,200 cells per microliter, whereas folks with untreated HIV might have counts decrease than 200 cells per microliter.
CD4+ T-cells are additionally known as helper T-cells as a result of they help one other sort of immune cell known as B-cells in responding to floor proteins (antigens) on viruses comparable to SARS-CoV-2, the researchers defined.
The researchers additionally checked for the presence and ranges of antibodies towards the protein making up the spikes that protrude from the floor of the coronavirus within the members after they’d been totally vaccinated.
“We discovered that there was no vital distinction in both the vaccine-produced CD4+ T-cell responses or the titers [levels] of SARS-CoV-2 spike binding antibodies for wholesome members and people dwelling with HIV,” Blankson stated. “This means that folks dwelling with HIV may be adequately protected towards SARS-CoV-2, with correct vaccination.”
The research was revealed on-line not too long ago within the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Additional analysis is required to find out if folks with HIV who’ve decrease CD4+ T-cell counts get the identical sturdy mobile and humoral immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines because the members on this research, Blankson stated.
Extra data
HIV.gov has extra on COVID-19 and people with HIV.
SOURCE: Johns Hopkins Medication, information launch, Aug. 11, 2021
