Extended interval BNT162b2 vaccination enhances peak antibody generation
Helen Parry, Rachel Bruton, Christine Stephens, Christopher Bentley, Kevin Brown, Gayatri Amirthalingam, Bassam Hallis, Ashley Otter, Jianmin Zuo, Paul Moss
Abstract
. However, many countries extended this interval to accelerate population coverage with a single vaccine. It is not known how immune responses are influenced by delaying the second dose. We provide the assessment of immune responses in the first 14 weeks after standard or extended-interval BNT162b2 vaccination and show that delaying the second dose strongly boosts the peak antibody response by 3.5-fold in older people. This enhanced antibody response may offer a longer period of clinical protection and delay the need for booster vaccination. In contrast, peak cellular-specific responses were the strongest in those vaccinated on a standard 3-week vaccine interval. As such, the timing of the second dose has a marked influence on the kinetics and magnitude of the adaptive immune response after mRNA vaccination in older people.