Gut microbiota as a potential key to modulating humoral immunogenicity of new platform COVID-19 vaccines
Hye Seong, Bo Kyu Choi, Young-Hee Han, Jun Hyoung Kim, Jeong‐An Gim, Sooyeon Lim, Ji Yun Noh, Hee Jin Cheong, Woo Joo Kim, Joon Young Song
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel respiratory infectious disease, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which led to a global pandemic. Although vaccination is the best measure to overcome a pandemic, the immunogenicity of vaccines can be influenced by diverse factors, including intrinsic (age, sex, genetics, and comorbidities), extrinsic (diet, nutrition, and behavior), and vaccine-associated characteristics. 1 In addition, the microbiome may play an essential role in controlling the immune response to both oral and parenteral vaccines. 2 A recent human microbiome intervention study with a trivalent influenza vaccine suggested that microbiota dysbiosis was associated with increased inflammation and decreased vaccine immune response. 3 Antibiotic abuse, obesity, diabetes, and other individual factors could cause intestinal microbiota dysbiosis, which might affect vaccine immunogenicity. Contrary to the influenza vaccine, in the case of COVID-19 vaccines, it would be possible to better evaluate the influence of gut microbes on vaccine immunogenicity in the absence of pre-existing immunity. In this study, we investigated the serial correlations between the gut microbiota and serum SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels after vaccination and analyzed the potential effects of vaccine platform (adenovirus-vectored versus mRNA vaccines).