Prediction of humoral and cellular immune response to COVID-19 mRNA vaccination by TTV load in kidney transplant recipients and hemodialysis patients.

Marianne Graninger, Julian Stumpf, Gregor Bond, Irene Görzer, David N Springer, Friederike Kessel, Hannah Kröger, Kerstin Frank, Torsten Tonn, Christian Hugo, Elisabeth Puchhammer-Stöckl

Journal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology 2023 May

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Immunosuppressed individuals such as kidney transplant recipients (KTR) and hemodialysis patients (DP) show impaired immune responses to COVID-19 vaccination. Plasma Torque Teno Virus (TTV) DNA load is used as surrogate for the individual degree of immunosuppression. We now assessed the association of TTV load at time of COVID-19 vaccination with humoral and cellular immune response rates to vaccination in KTR, DP, and healthy medical personnel (MP). A total of 100 KTR, 115 DP and 54 MP were included. All were SARS-CoV-2 seronegative at the time of vaccination with either BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273. Plasma TTV loads were assessed at the time of first vaccination. After two-dose vaccination, seroconversion (de novo detection of SARS-CoV-2 S1-IgA and/or IgG) was determined. In addition, cellular responses as assessed by interferon γ release and neutralizing antibodies were assessed in a subset of participants. ROC analyses were performed to define TTV load cut-offs predicting specific immune responses to vaccination. Plasma TTV loads at the time of first vaccination were negatively associated with seroconversion after two-dose vaccination in KTR (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.76-0.99). TTV loads were significantly lower in KTR who developed humoral and cellular immune responses to vaccination compared to non-responders (p = 0.0411 and 0.0030, respectively). Of patients with TTV loads above 106 copies/ml, none developed cellular immune responses against SARS-CoV-2, and only 2 of 17 (12%) seroconverted in response to vaccination. Plasma TTV loads at the time of first vaccination in immunosuppressed individuals may be useful to predict individual vaccine-specific immune responses. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Citation

Marianne Graninger, Julian Stumpf, Gregor Bond, Irene Görzer, David N Springer, Friederike Kessel, Hannah Kröger, Kerstin Frank, Torsten Tonn, Christian Hugo, Elisabeth Puchhammer-Stöckl. Prediction of humoral and cellular immune response to COVID-19 mRNA vaccination by TTV load in kidney transplant recipients and hemodialysis patients. Journal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology. 2023 May;162:105428