Evaluation of humoral immune response after ChAdOx1 nCoV‐19 vaccination among health care workers

Abstract

AbstractWe assessed the immunogenicity of ChAdOx1 nCoV‐19 vaccination by evaluating the levels of SARS‐CoV‐2 IgG after vaccination and investigated the effect of diverse factors such as gender, age, and adverse reactions after vaccination. The study included a total of 1028 serum samples from 452 healthcare workers. SARS‐CoV‐2 IgG levels were assessed using the SARS‐CoV‐2 IgG II Quant assay. Participants completed a questionnaire regarding the intensity and duration of adverse reactions after vaccination. The seropositive rates after the first and second doses were 95.5% and 100%, respectively. The median antibody levels after the second dose showed a 4.2‐fold increase compared with the first. Five months after the second dose, the median antibody levels decreased by 3.5‐fold. The antibody levels in men were lower than those in women after the first dose and were higher after the second dose. There was no difference according to age groups after the first dose, but after the second dose, in subjects aged 50 and above, the rise in antibody levels was less than that in other age groups. The antibody levels among participants with moderate or severe symptoms were significantly higher than those among participants with mild symptoms after the first dose. There were no statistically significant differences according to the duration of symptoms. We could assume that different age groups and genders might have different immunogenicity following vaccination. The intensity of adverse symptoms was positively correlated with the antibody levels, implying that higher immunogenicity is related to the intensity of adverse symptoms after vaccination.