Features of post-vaccination humoral immune response in the persons who underwent COVID-19 of various severity

The studies on humoral immune response in the individuals who have undergone COVID-19 and vaccinated with anti-COVID vaccines allows us to assess the  development  of  “hybrid”  immunity,  which contributes to understanding the mechanisms of its formation from the effector phase to the step of immunological memory. We assessed the relative and absolute contents of B cell populations and subpopulations, development of humoral immunity in the patients who suffered with COVID-19 of varying severity being thereafter vaccinated with “KoviVak” and “Sputnik V”. The study involved volunteers (age 47.3±14.5 years) who beared COVID-19 asymptomatically (n = 32), at moderate severity (n = 21), or had severe form of the disease (n = 12), then being vaccinated with “KoviVak” and “Sputnik V” 6-9 months after their recovery. The groups of vaccinated persons consisted of those who beared severe disease being vaccinated with “KoviVak” (n = 6) or “Sputnik V” (n = 6); moderate cases, vaccinated with “KoviVak” (n = 10) and “Sputnik V” (n = 11); asymptomatic cases vaccinated with “KoviVak” (n = 10) and “Sputnik V” (n = 22). We have determined relative and absolute numbers of B lymphocytes (CD45⁺CD19⁺), B1 lymphocytes (CD45⁺CD5⁺CD19^-CD27^-), B2 lymphocytes (CD45⁺CD19⁺CD5^-CD27^-), total population of memory B cells (CD45⁺CD19⁺CD5^-CD27⁺), non-switched (CD45⁺CD19⁺IgD⁺CD27⁺), and switched (CD45⁺CD19⁺IgD^-CD27⁺) memory  B  cells;  mature  naive   B   lymphocytes   (CD45⁺CD19⁺CD27^-IgD⁺),   plasmoblasts   (CD45⁺CD19⁺ CD38⁺⁺⁺IgD^-CD27+),   as  well as presence of IgG to S(RBD)-SARS-CoV-2 protein.

We have found that the humoral immunity among survivors of COVID-19 of varying severity is expressed for up to nine months. The largest number of volunteers who raised antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 S-protein was registered in the group of seriously ill patients. As soon as 1 month after “Sputnik V” vaccination and until the end of the observation, all the examined subjects in this group became seropositive. 4-5 months after injection of this vaccine, specific immunoglobulins were present in all patients who had asymptomatic or average-severity infection. All volunteers who received “KoviVak” had antibodies to the COVID-19 viral S protein from the beginning to the end of the study. Vaccination, especially with “KoviVak”, contributed to the highest increase, both in relative and absolute numbers of memory B lymphocytes in asymptomatic patients. Less pronounced changes in the content of B lymphocytes in COVID-19 patients who had severe and moderate clinical course may be associated with higher levels of these cells prior to injection of the vaccines. A positive correlation was found between the number of memory B cells and presence of immunoglobulins to the S protein SARS-CoV-2 in all examined patients.

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