evaluation of adenoviral COVID-19 vaccination protocols: Assessment of immunological memory up to 6 months after the third dose.

BACKGROUND

The immune response to adenoviral COVID-19 vaccines is affected by the interval between doses. The optimal interval is unknown.

AIM

We aim to explore in-silico the effect of the interval between vaccine administrations on immunogenicity and to analyze the contribution of pre-existing levels of antibodies, plasma cells, and memory B and T lymphocytes.

METHODS

We used a stochastic agent-based immune simulation platform to simulate two-dose and three-dose vaccination protocols with an adenoviral vaccine. We identified the model's parameters fitting anti-Spike antibody levels from individuals immunized with the COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca (ChAdOx1-S, Vaxzevria). We used several statistical methods, such as principal component analysis and binary classification, to analyze the correlation between pre-existing levels of antibodies, plasma cells, and memory B and T cells to the magnitude of the antibody response following a booster dose.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

We find that the magnitude of the antibody response to a booster depends on the number of pre-existing memory B cells, which, in turn, is highly correlated to the number of T helper cells and plasma cells, and the antibody titers. Pre-existing memory T cytotoxic cells and antibodies directly influence antigen availability hence limiting the magnitude of the immune response. The optimal immunogenicity of the third dose is achieved over a large time window, spanning from 6 to 16 months after the second dose. Interestingly, after any vaccine dose, individuals can be classified into two groups, and , that differ in the kinetics of decline of their antibody titers due to differences in long-lived plasma cells. This suggests that the may benefit from a tailored boosting schedule with a shorter interval to avoid the temporary loss of serological immunity.