Host genetics impact on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-induced immunoglobulin levels and dynamics: The role of TP53, ABO, APOE, ACE2, HLA-A, and CRP genes

Donato Gemmati; Giovanna Longo; Ines Gallo; Juliana Araujo Silva; Paola Secchiero; Giorgio Zauli; Stefania Hanau; Angelina Passaro; Patrizia Pellegatti; Stefano Pizzicotti; Maria Luisa Serino; Ajay Vikram Singh; Veronica Tisato

doi:10.3389/fgene.2022.1028081

Host genetics impact on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-induced immunoglobulin levels and dynamics: The role of TP53, ABO, APOE, ACE2, HLA-A, and CRP genes

Front Genet. 2022 Nov 30:13:1028081. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2022.1028081. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Donato Gemmati^{1

2

3}, Giovanna Longo^{1

2}, Ines Gallo^{1

2}, Juliana Araujo Silva^{1

2}, Paola Secchiero¹, Giorgio Zauli⁴, Stefania Hanau⁵, Angelina Passaro¹, Patrizia Pellegatti⁶, Stefano Pizzicotti⁶, Maria Luisa Serino², Ajay Vikram Singh⁷, Veronica Tisato^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Translational Medicine, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
² Centre Haemostasis & Thrombosis, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
³ University Centre for Gender Medicine Studies, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
⁴ Research Department, King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Neuroscience & Rehabilitation, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
⁶ Hospital-University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
⁷ Department of Chemical & Product Safety, German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Berlin, Germany.

Abstract

Background: Development and worldwide availability of safe and effective vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) to fight severe symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and block the pandemic have been a great achievement and stimulated researchers on understanding the efficacy and duration of different vaccine types. Methods: We investigated the levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (IgG) and neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) in 195 healthy adult subjects belonging to the staff of the University-Hospital of Ferrara (Italy) starting from 15 days up to 190 days (about 6 months) after the second dose of the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) mRNA-based vaccine (n = 128) or ChAdOx1 (AstraZeneca) adenovirus-based vaccine (n = 67) using a combined approach of serological and genomics investigations. Results: A strong correlation between IgG and NAb levels was detected during the 190 days of follow-up (r ² = 0.807; p < 0.0001) and was confirmed during the first 90 days (T1) after vaccination (r ² = 0.789; p = 0.0001) and 91-190 days (T2) after vaccination (r ² = 0.764; p = 0.0001) for both vaccine types (r ² = 0.842; p = 0.0001 and r ² = 0.780; p = 0.0001 for mRNA- and adenovirus-based vaccine, respectively). In addition to age (p < 0.01), sex (p = 0.03), and type of vaccine (p < 0.0001), which partially accounted for the remarkable individual differences observed in the antibody levels and dynamics, interesting genetic determinants appeared as significant modifiers of both IgG and NAb responses among the selected genes investigated (TP53, rs1042522; APOE, rs7412/rs429358; ABO, rs657152; ACE2, rs2285666; HLA-A rs2571381/rs2499; CRP, rs2808635/rs876538; LZTFL1, rs35044562; OAS3, rs10735079; SLC6A20, rs11385942; CFH, rs1061170; and ACE1, ins/del, rs4646994). In detail, regression analysis and mean antibody level comparison yielded appreciable differences after genotype stratification (P₁ and P₂, respectively, for IgG and NAb distribution) in the whole cohort and/or in the mRNA-based vaccine in the following genes: TP53, rs1042522 (P₁ = 0.03; P₂ = 0.04); ABO, rs657152 (P₁ = 0.01; P₂ = 0.03); APOE, rs7412/rs429358 (P₁ = 0.0018; P₂ = 0.0002); ACE2, rs2285666 (P₁ = 0.014; P₂ = 0.009); HLA-A, rs2571381/rs2499 (P₁ = 0.02; P₂ = 0.03); and CRP, rs2808635/rs876538 (P₁ = 0.01 and P₂ = 0.09). Conclusion: High- or low-responsive subjects can be identified among healthy adult vaccinated subjects after targeted genetic screening. This suggests that favorable genetic backgrounds may support the progression of an effective vaccine-induced immune response, though no definite conclusions can be drawn on the real effectiveness ascribed to a specific vaccine or to the different extent of a genotype-driven humoral response. The interplay between data from the polygenic predictive markers and serological screening stratified by demogeographic information can help to recognize the individual humoral response, accounting for ethnic and geographical differences, in both COVID-19 and anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations.

Keywords: BNT162b2 (Pfizer–BioNTech); COVID-19; COVIDomics; ChAdOx1 (AstraZeneca); SARS-CoV-2; SNPs; vaccine; vaccine pharmacogenomics.