School of Mental Health and Neuroscience, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Front Immunol. 2021 Oct 7;12:749264. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.749264. eCollection 2021.
COVID-19 is characterized by strikingly large, mostly unexplained, interindividual variation in symptom severity: while some individuals remain nearly asymptomatic, others suffer from severe respiratory failure. Previous vaccinations for other pathogens, in particular tetanus, may partly explain this variation, possibly by readying the immune system.
We made use of data on COVID-19 testing from 103,049 participants of the UK Biobank (mean age 71.5 years, 54.2% female), coupled to immunization records of the last ten years. Using logistic regression, covarying for age, sex, respiratory disease diagnosis, and socioeconomic status, we tested whether individuals vaccinated for tetanus, diphtheria or pertussis, differed from individuals that had only received other vaccinations on 1) undergoing a COVID-19 test, 2) being diagnosed with COVID-19, and 3) whether they developed severe COVID-19 symptoms.
We found that individuals with registered diphtheria or tetanus vaccinations are less likely to develop severe COVID-19 than people who had only received other vaccinations (diphtheria odds ratio (OR)=0.47, p-value=5.310; tetanus OR=0.52, p-value=1.210).
These results indicate that a history of diphtheria or tetanus vaccinations is associated with less severe manifestations of COVID-19. These vaccinations may protect against severe COVID-19 symptoms by stimulating the immune system. We note the correlational nature of these results, yet the possibility that these vaccinations may influence the severity of COVID-19 warrants follow-up investigations.
COVID-19 的症状严重程度在个体间存在显著且大多无法解释的差异：有些个体几乎没有症状，而有些则患有严重的呼吸衰竭。以前针对其他病原体（特别是破伤风）的疫苗接种可能部分解释了这种差异，其可能通过使免疫系统做好准备来实现。
我们利用了来自英国生物银行的 103049 名参与者的 COVID-19 检测数据（平均年龄 71.5 岁，54.2%为女性），并结合了过去十年的免疫接种记录。我们使用逻辑回归，在协变量中考虑了年龄、性别、呼吸道疾病诊断和社会经济地位，以检验接种破伤风、白喉或百日咳疫苗的个体与仅接种其他疫苗的个体在以下三个方面的差异：1）接受 COVID-19 检测，2）被诊断为 COVID-19，以及 3）是否出现严重 COVID-19 症状。
我们发现，与仅接种其他疫苗的人相比，登记有白喉或破伤风疫苗接种史的个体发生严重 COVID-19 的可能性较低（白喉比值比（OR）=0.47，p 值=5.310；破伤风 OR=0.52，p 值=1.210）。
这些结果表明，白喉或破伤风疫苗接种史与 COVID-19 的症状较轻有关。这些疫苗接种可能通过刺激免疫系统来预防严重的 COVID-19 症状。我们注意到这些结果的相关性，但这些疫苗接种可能影响 COVID-19 严重程度的可能性值得进一步调查。
