Those living with HIV may benefit from COVID-19 booster shot: study

MONTREAL -

A research team out of the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) says those living with the HIV virus may benefit from a third booster shot after receiving two COVID-19 vaccine jabs.

According to a study published on the preprint science site bioRxiv, the team measured COVID-19 vaccine humoral responses in about 100 people living with HIV, which resulted in preliminary results that showed "immunocompromised people respond variably to the vaccine depending on their level of CD4+ T cells."

"We have known for a long time that people living with HIV have weaker responses to certain types of vaccines and that the responses depend on the number of CD4+ T cells," said Dr. Cecile Tremblay, one of those who headed the study. "These cells have a significant impact on the production of antibodies and play an essential role in the immune response. In the context of the emergence of more resistant variants, we wanted to measure whether this category of the population had an adequate response to vaccination."

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Tremblay was joined by Dr. Andrés Finzi say that though the messenger RNA vaccines have proven effective in protecting against severe forms of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus in addition to hospitalizations, deaths and variants (including Delta), "a higher level of antibodies is needed to provide optimal protection."

Few studies, the release adds, have measured the effect of vaccines on HIV-positive patients.

"Looking at the overall results, the response to the vaccine is similar to that of the general population," said Finzi. "However, when we stratify by CD4 T cell counts,  we noticed a weaker response in the group of individuals with a low level of CD4+ T cells. If the trend continues after the second dose, these data would support the hypothesis that a booster dose might be required for this population."

The research team will continue to monitor the participants for a year.