Kidney transplant recipients vaccinated before transplantation maintain superior humoral response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccine

Abstract

Majority of transplant recipients did not develop an appreciable humoral response following SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, in contrast to dialysis patients and healthy individuals. We analyzed the serologic response to BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine in a cohort of 19 kidney transplant recipients, vaccinated prior to transplantation, compare to 109 recipients vaccinated after transplantation, and to 39 healthcare workers, by determining the level of anti-spike antibodies after transplantation. All controls and 17 of 19 (90%) of recipients vaccinated before transplant were seropositive, while only 49 of 109 (45%) recipients vaccinated post-transplant had positive serology (P