The Immunogenicity and Safety of the CoronaVac Vaccine in Patients with Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases

August 2, 2021

Last Friday, Nature Medicine published the results of a Phase 4 trial on the CoronaVac vaccine, which took place in Brazil. This trial aimed to evaluate both the immunogenicity and safety of CoronaVac in 910 patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARD). Immunogenicity measures the ability of a vaccine to induce an immune response in someone who’s been vaccinated (1). In this particular study, immunogenicity was indicated by the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and neutralizing antibodies. The results found that the vaccine produced an immune response in patients with ARD, but at lower levels when compared to the control group.

Factors that contributed to negative anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were older age and female sex. Old age was also more common among patients with negative neutralizing antibodies after complete vaccination.
In addition to immunogenicity, vaccine safety was explored as a secondary outcome in the study. Overall, there were no moderate or severe adverse events reported. General reactions such as back pain, nausea, joint pain, sweating, and fatigue were more frequently reported among the cohort.