COVID Vaccines Offer Good Protection for People Living With HIV

MONDAY, Aug. 16, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- COVID-19 vaccination triggers a beardown immune effect successful radical with HIV, meaning they're apt protected against the coronavirus, a new, tiny survey shows.

"Previous probe has suggested a suboptimal effect to COVID-19 vaccines successful radical living with HIV; however, these studies did not afloat qualify and specify that response, some for cellular [where the immune system straight attacks infected cells] and humoral [where the immune strategy circulates virus-fighting antibodies] immunity," said elder survey writer Dr. Joel Blankson. He is simply a prof of medicine astatine the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, successful Baltimore.

"What we recovered with the wide utilized Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was conscionable the opposite, arsenic it induces robust immune responses successful radical surviving with HIV, comparable to those seen successful steadfast people," helium explained successful a Hopkins quality release.

For the study, Blankson and his colleagues analyzed humor samples collected from 7 women and 5 men with HIV and from 7 women and 10 men without HIV betwixt 7 and 17 days aft they received their 2nd dose of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine.

None of the participants had grounds of anterior corruption with the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19.

All of the radical with HIV were connected antiretroviral therapy and had a median CD4+ T-cell number of 913 cells per microliter. Levels of these immune cells successful a steadfast big are betwixt 500 to 1,200 cells per microliter, portion radical with untreated HIV whitethorn person counts little than 200 cells per microliter.

CD4+ T-cells are besides called helper T-cells due to the fact that they assistance different benignant of immune compartment called B-cells successful responding to aboveground proteins (antigens) connected viruses specified arsenic SARS-CoV-2, the researchers explained.

The researchers besides checked for the beingness and levels of antibodies against the macromolecule making up the spikes that protrude from the aboveground of the coronavirus successful the participants aft they'd been afloat vaccinated.

"We recovered that determination was nary important quality successful either the vaccine-produced CD4+ T-cell responses oregon the titers [levels] of SARS-CoV-2 spike binding antibodies for steadfast participants and those surviving with HIV," Blankson said. "This indicates that radical surviving with HIV tin beryllium adequately protected against SARS-CoV-2, with due vaccination."

The survey was published online precocious successful the diary Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Further probe is needed to find if radical with HIV who person little CD4+ T-cell counts get the aforesaid beardown cellular and humoral immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines arsenic the participants successful this study, Blankson said.

More information

HIV.gov has much connected COVID-19 and radical with HIV.

SOURCE: Johns Hopkins Medicine, quality release, Aug. 11, 2021