TY - JOUR AU - Dulovic, Alex AU - Strengert, Monika AU - Ramos, Gema Morillas AU - Becker, Matthias AU - Griesbaum, Johanna AU - Junker, Daniel AU - Lürken, Karsten AU - Beigel, Andrea AU - Wrenger, Eike AU - Lonnemann, Gerhard AU - Cossmann, Anne AU - Stankov, Metodi AU - Dopfer-Jablonka, Alexandra AU - Kaiser, Philipp AU - Traenkle, Bjoern AU - Rothbauer, Ulrich AU - Krause, Gérard AU - Schneiderhan-Marra, Nicole AU - Behrens, Georg M.N. T1 - Diminishing Immune Responses against Variants of Concern in Dialysis Patients 4 Months after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccination T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2022 VL - 28 IS - 4 SP - 743 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis were among the first to receive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccinations because of their increased risk for severe coronavirus disease and high case-fatality rates. By using a previously reported cohort from Germany of at-risk hemodialysis patients and healthy donors, where antibody responses were examined 3 weeks after the second vaccination, we assessed systemic cellular and humoral immune responses in serum and saliva 4 months after vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine using an interferon-γ release assay and multiplex-based IgG measurements. We further compared neutralization capacity of vaccination-induced IgG against 4 SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta) by angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor-binding domain competition assay. Sixteen weeks after second vaccination, compared with 3 weeks after, cellular and humoral responses against the original SARS-CoV-2 isolate and variants of concern were substantially reduced. Some dialysis patients even had no detectable B- or T-cell responses. KW - COVID-19 KW - coronavirus disease KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 KW - viruses KW - respiratory infections KW - zoonoses KW - vaccine-preventable diseases KW - dialysis KW - mRNA vaccination KW - variants of concern KW - booster dose KW - immunocompromised KW - longevity of immune response DO - 10.3201/eid2804.211907 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/28/4/21-1907_article ER - End of Reference