Immune Response in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients after COVID-19 CoronaVac Administration

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic represented a challenge in prevention policy and medicine development. For the prevention, vaccines were fast developed to restrain the disease's spread. CoronaVac was among the first vaccines available to middle- and low-income countries. Renal patients are usually excluded from vaccine trials, and little is known about the need for a specific dose and booster. This study aimed to evaluate the antibody response in chronic kidney disease (CKD) after three months of vaccination. Methods: It is a cross-sectional study with advanced CKD adults vaccinated with CoronaVac. The total IgG and anti-spike antibodies were evaluated after three months of the complete regimen vaccination. A matched control group without kidney disease was used for antibody level comparison and seroconversion rate. Results: A total of 44 participants met the inclusion criteria, and 19 had advanced CKD. The mean total IgG concentration was 4,323 U/mL in the CKD arm and 6,215 U/mL in controls. The anti-spike antibody results were 10,471 U/mL in the CKD group and 10,355 U/mL in controls. The anti-spike antibody seroconversion was 27% in dialysis patients and 68% in healthy individuals. Conclusion: Advanced CKD patients are known to have a lower immune response; however, in this study, we could show that despite being lower than controls, the antibody levels configured protection against Sars-cov-2 after six months. This study showed no difference in the antibody concentration between renal patients and controls, but seroconversion was lower in renal patients.