New research shows that severely obese adults have a significantly weaker immune response to covid-19 vaccination than normal weight people Pfizer / biontech has a stronger antibody response to patients with severe obesity than coronavac.
New research shows that severely obese adults (18 years old or older) have a significantly reduced immune response to covid-19 vaccination compared with normal weight people. The study was conducted by Professor Volkan Demirhan yumuk of the University of Istanbul in Turkey and his colleagues and was presented at the European obesity Conference (ECO) held in Maastricht, the Netherlands this year (may 4-7).
The study also found that severely obese people vaccinated with Pfizer / Biotechnology bnt162b2 mRNA vaccine (BMI more than 40kg / m2) produced significantly more antibodies than those vaccinated with coronavac (inactivated sars-cov-2), suggesting that Pfizer / Biotechnology vaccine may be a better choice for this vulnerable population.
Obesity is a disease that complicates the course of covid-19. The antibody response of sars-cov-2 vaccine in adults with obesity may be affected. Vaccines against influenza, hepatitis B and rabies have shown reduced response in obese patients.
To learn more, the researchers investigated the antibody responses of 124 adults with severe obesity (mean age 42-63 years) who visited the obesity center of the Affiliated Hospital of the University of Istanbul Cerrahpasa Medical College between August and November 2021 after receiving Pfizer / Biotechnology and coronavac vaccines. They also recruited 166 normal weight adults as a control group (BMI less than 25 kg / m2, mean age 39-47 years) who were treated in the vaccination Department of Cerrahpasa hospital.
The researchers measured antibody levels in blood samples taken from patients and normal weight controls who had received two doses of Pfizer / biotechnology or coronavac vaccine and a second dose four weeks ago. Participants were classified according to their history of infection as having previously had covid-19 or not (confirmed by their antibody profile).
Overall, 130 participants received two doses of Pfizer / biological ntech vaccine and 160 participants received two doses of coronavac vaccine, of which 70 participants had previously been infected with sars-cov-2 (see the table in the editor's note).
Among those who had not previously been infected with sars-cov-2 and were vaccinated with Pfizer / biontech vaccine, antibody levels in severely obese patients were more than three times lower than those in normal weight controls (mean 5823 vs 19371 Au / ml).
Similarly, among participants who had not previously been infected with sars-cov-2 and were vaccinated with coronavac, antibody levels in severely obese patients were 27 times lower than those in normal weight controls (mean 178 vs 4894 Au / ml).
However, among those who had been infected with sars-cov-2, there was no significant difference in antibody levels between patients with severe obesity and those vaccinated with Pfizer / biotechnology or coronavac and normal weight controls (mean 39043 vs 14115 Au / ml and 3221 vs 7060 Au / ml, respectively).
Interestingly, the analysis found that in severely obese patients, regardless of whether they had sars-cov-2 infection before, the antibody level of Pfizer / biontech vaccine was significantly higher than that of coronavac vaccine.