That’s not the only study BRI researchers are conducting to understand how COVID-19 vaccines work in various populations. Bernard Khor, MD, PhD, is also studying the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines among people with Down Syndrome (DS). People with Down syndrome are at increased risk for complications of COVID-19 and have higher instances of autoimmunity than people without DS.
“Respiratory infections are a leading cause of death in people with Down syndrome, which is why it's so important to understand how effective COVID vaccines are in this population,” Dr. Khor says. “Not only is the goal to help people with Down syndrome mount a more effective immune response, but also to try and understand what this can teach us about vaccine response in people without Down syndrome too.”
What does it mean to “mount a vaccine response?”
In general, vaccines help train your immune system to fight off diseases. They do this by teaching the immune system to recognize an invader (say SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19) and attack if they see it.
Two types of immune cells help your body recognize and attack invaders: B cells and T cells. B cells help your body recognize harmful invaders by making antibodies. T cells help destroy those invaders. “Mounting a vaccine response” or “responding to a vaccine” means that when you get a vaccine, these immune cells can recognize germs and fight them off.
Learn more about MRNA vaccines for COVID-19.
Do medicines for autoimmune disease impact your ability to respond to the vaccine?
Having an autoimmune disease, which happens when your immune system starts mistakenly attacking healthy cells, does not typically impact your body’s ability to respond to vaccines. But some of the medications people take for these conditions slow down the immune system, which could affect vaccine response.
Dr. Speake’s team is working with researchers at the University of Washington (UW) to learn if and how certain medications impact how your body responds to the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.
So far, researchers have taken blood samples before and after both vaccine doses from people with conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis who take certain medications.
UW’s team has led the first part of data analysis, examining whether B cells are responding properly to vaccination by making an antibody response. So far, their research has shown that most of the therapies they’re studying do not affect the amount of antibodies someone makes to the vaccine.
“This is really good news, because it means that, in general, people with autoimmunity who are taking these therapies still have a very good response to their COVID vaccination,” Dr. Speake says.
The one group they found that did not have a strong antibody response to these therapies were people who take therapies like rituximab or ocrelizumab, which deplete B cells.
“This is what we expected to see — if you don’t have any B cells, it's really hard for your body to make a new response,” she says.
Next, BRI will lead an analysis looking at T cell response.
“The T cell piece is really important — we need to know more about both responses to put the full puzzle together,” Dr. Speake says. “Once we have that information, we can start to inform clinicians and they can inform their patients of which therapies might have an impact on vaccine response.”
Read more about vaccine response and immune system diseases.
Does having Down syndrome impact your ability to respond to COVID-19 vaccines?
Understanding how vaccines work in people with Down syndrome is vital, because people with this condition are more likely to have complications from respiratory infections.
