Adenoviral-Based COVID-19 Vaccine Found Effective With Dialysis Patients

Given the vulnerability of people with chronic kidney disease to COVID-19, nephrology societies have called for the prioritization of these patients for vaccination, wrote Argentina-based researchers in a non-peer-reviewed study published on October 25, 2021.

'It is not yet known whether COVID-19 vaccines confer the same high level of protection in patients with kidney disease. Kidney disease substantially increases the risk of severe COVID-19.'

The aims of this multicenter, observational, and analytical study of a prospective cohort of hemodialysis patients in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires was to evaluate the safety measured by the events supposedly attributed to vaccines and the effectiveness evaluated by the presence of antibodies in dialysis patients immunized with the Sputnik V vaccine.

This COVID-19 vector vaccine is an adenoviral-based, two-part vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

The Sputnik V vaccine uses a weakened virus to deliver small parts of a pathogen and stimulate an immune response and reduce the time taken for the development of immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the betacoronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study's results are based on 491 patients included in the safety analysis.

The effectiveness analysis measures of antibodies against SARS-Cov-2 were performed in 102 patients; 98% had positive IgG against SARS-Cov-2 antibodies 21 days after the second component.

In patients with COVID-19 prior to vaccination, antibodies at day 21 after the first component reached the highest levels compared to those patients who did not have COVID-19, and the rise between the last measures was lower than patients without COVID-19.

In conclusion, these researchers wrote, 'Dialysis patients constitute a vulnerable population for SARS-Cov-2 infection, beyond the recommendations that were implemented by dialysis units, full vaccination is a priority and necessary.'

'Furthermore, the Sputnik V vaccine has been shown to be safe and effective in this (kidney dialysis) patient population.'

The COVIDAR group provided the Serokits for sampling and the ELISA COVIDAR IgG kits, supported by FOCEM and Assoc. SAND. None of the funding sources provided economical support for the data collection, statistical analysis, or were used to write the manuscript or to submit it for publication. And the authors have declared no competing interest.