Journal of hepatology
-
Journal of hepatology · Aug 2021
Low immunogenicity to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination among liver transplant recipients.
Two SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines were approved to prevent COVID-19 infection, with reported vaccine efficacy of 95%. Liver transplant (LT) recipients are at risk of lower vaccine immunogenicity and were not included in the registration trials. We assessed vaccine immunogenicity and safety in this special population. ⋯ The Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine elicited substantially inferior immunity in liver transplant recipients. Less than half of the patients developed sufficient levels of antibodies against the virus, and in those who were positive, average antibody levels were 2x less compared to healthy controls. Factors predicting non-response were older age, renal function and immunosuppressive medications.