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<\/a>Stepkowski<\/p><\/div>\n
Studies have shown that some immunosuppressed patients develop a robust antibody response. Others develop no response at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat variation in immune response is one of the biggest questions we are facing,\u201d said Dr. Stanislaw Stepkowski, a transplant immunologist and professor in The University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences. \u201cIt\u2019s the same vaccine, the same dose, but it\u2019s not protecting everyone at the same level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stepkowski suspects the answer lies with the specific types of antibodies being produced after vaccination \u2014 and how the body\u2019s immune cells are responding and working together to produce them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we hear stories on the news about vaccine effectiveness, we often hear references to antibody production, but that\u2019s a very general statement,\u201d he said. \u201cIn reality, you can divide this into different quality of antibodies. We have IgM, IgG and IgA. The working hypothesis is that patients who produce all of those antibodies have the best protection.\u201d<\/p>\n
With $700,000 in support from an anonymous donor, Stepkowski is leading a UToledo research team that will monitor the level of those three key antibodies in hundreds of patients who received a kidney transplant at The University of Toledo Medical Center.<\/p>\n
Through that, the team hopes to learn more about how the COVID-19 vaccine confers protection in specific individuals and provides valuable insights about how clinicians might tweak the dosage or delivery method of the vaccine to better protect those with suppressed or compromised immune systems.<\/p>\n
Individuals who have weakened immune systems are more likely to get severely sick if they contract COVID-19, regardless of why they are immunocompromised.<\/p>\n
Those who have received an organ transplant \u2014 including a kidney \u2014 require a lifelong cocktail of immunosuppressive drugs to prevent their bodies from rejecting the new organ.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile these medications are wonderful at stopping rejection, they impede the immune\u00a0system’s ability to fight off diseases like COVID. They also impair the body’s ability to respond to a COVID vaccination,\u201d said Dr. Michael Rees, a transplant surgeon at UTMC and professor of urology in the UToledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences.<\/p>\n