A COVID-19 vaccine booster dose can help immunocompromised patients generate a strong defense against the disease, according to research published in the journal the Lancet Rheumatology.1 The authors said the findings support strategies at the national and international level that promote booster doses.
COVID-19 vaccines are known to prevent severe illness, hospitalization, and death among the general population. However, studies have shown that immunocompromised patients—particularly organ transplant recipients—have significantly lower seroconversion rates and antibody titers after getting vaccinated.2
Key Takeaways
- Research published in The Lancet Rheumatology suggests that a COVID-19 vaccine booster dose can significantly enhance antibody levels and T-cell responses in immunocompromised patients.
- Results showed that 90% of low responders saw a substantial increase in antibody concentrations after a third vaccine dose, while detectable T-cell responses were observed in 80% of participants.
- While boosters proved effective in enhancing immunity for most participants, over half of non-responders did not develop sufficient antibody defenses even after the third dose.
A team of investigators from the University of Birmingham and the University of Glasgow conducted a study to determine the value of a third vaccination in a wide range of patients with primary and secondary immunodeficiencies. The trial, called OCTAVE-DUO, was an open-label, multi-center, randomized, controlled, phase 3 study conducted in 11 hospitals in the United Kingdom.
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“Our first OCTAVE study revealed a group of patients who may not mount a sufficient immune response following a vaccine dose, which is why the OCTAVE-DUO study is so important,” Iain McInnes, lead investigator on the study, said in a release.3 “For the clinically vulnerable in our society, [a] vaccine booster program offers important protection, therefore further understanding of the effectiveness of vaccines in people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases is extremely important.”
OCTAVE-DUO included 804 adult participants across 9 disease cohorts, including solid cancer, lymphoid malignancy, immune-mediated rheumatic disease, chronic renal disease, chronic liver disease, and gastrointestinal disease, who had an inadequate response to 2 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Patients were randomly assigned between August 2021 and March 2022 to receive 1 of 3 vaccines: Pfizer’s BNT162b2, Moderna’s mRNA-1273, or Novavax’s NVX-CoV2373.
The primary study outcome was “vaccine-specific immunogenicity as defined by the concentrations of anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike antibodies and T-cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 spike peptides 21 days after the third vaccine dose compared with pre-third vaccine responses.”
