TY  - JOUR
AU  - Zafranskaya, Marina
AU  - Shatova, Olesya
AU  - Nazaranka, Elizaveta
AU  - Кurlianskaya, Alena
AU  - Ivanchik, Galina
AU  - Russkih, Irina
AU  - Vialichka, Alesia
AU  - Kolyadko, Marina
AU  - Denisevich, Tatyana
AU  - Kulinich, Svetlana
AU  - Nizheharodava, Darya
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/10/21
TI  - Immunologic Response after COVID-19 Vaccination in Heart Transplant Recipients
JO  - OBM Transplantation
SP  - 259
VL  - 09
IS  - 04
AB  - To date, all large-scale randomized controlled trials for COVID-19 vaccines have excluded solid organ transplant recipients; therefore, the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing coronavirus infection using COVID-19 vaccines in patients with heart transplants have not been sufficiently studied. This paper presents the characteristics of humoral and cellular immunity in heart transplant recipients following vaccination against coronavirus infection. The study group consisted of 40 patients who underwent orthotopic heart transplantation between 2019 and 2014. They were vaccinated twice with the Vero Cell vaccine (China) or received a 3-dose vaccination with Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V, Russia) booster. 63% of vaccinated individuals with no previous COVID-19 history and 85% of patients with a history of COVID-19 were to develop humoral post-vaccination immunity. The humoral response in patients who seroconverted before vaccination showed high level of virus-specific IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 S protein during the post-vaccination period, with a statistically increase observed 9-12 months after the booster. The specific cellular response to the SARS-CoV-2 S and N proteins remained low throughout the entire follow-up period, and was recorded in 5-40% of heart transplant recipients. A significantly increased number of S- and N-specific T cells was observed 4-6 months after the secondary immunization. Starting from 21-28 days after the primary vaccination and continuing for a year after the booster, increased plasmablasts (CD27highCD38high B cells) were observed, correlating with neutralizing and spike-specific antibodies. In heart transplant recipients, vaccination against coronavirus infection does not result in increased serum autoantibodies (RF-IgG and IgA-RF, anti-SSR, cardiolipin IgG, β2-glycoprotein IgG, ANA, ANCA-Pro, anti-SLA/LP, anti-GD-IgA). In our study, vaccinated heart transplant recipients with a history of coronavirus infection showed an increased level of anti-IFN-α antibodies for 9-12 months after the basic vaccination. This finding, when associated with HLA alleles, must be taken into account for identifying patients at a potential risk of a severe disease.
SN  - 2577-5820
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.transplant.2504259
DO  - 10.21926/obm.transplant.2504259
ID  - Zafranskaya2025
ER  -