Researchers from the University of Oxford have shed light on how certain genes can influence someone’s immune response to COVID-19 vaccination.
Their findings, published in Nature Medicine, show that people carrying a specific version of a particular gene generate a stronger antibody response than those without the gene.
The researchers also found that people carrying this gene (two in five people in the UK) were less likely to get COVID-19 once they had been vaccinated, compared to people without the gene.
The gene in question has a role in helping the immune system to distinguish the body's own proteins from foreign ones such as those made by viruses and bacteria.
The study provides some of the first evidence of a relationship between genetic factors and how people’s immune systems respond to COVID-19 vaccines, say the researchers.
The researchers drew their conclusions from analyses of the following samples:
- samples from 1,190 participants who enrolled in the University of Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials
- DNA from 1,677 adults who enrolled on Oxford’s Com-COV research programme
- DNA samples from children who participated in clinical trials for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Their findings were as follows:
- People carrying the HLA-DQB1*06 gene recorded higher antibody responses from the AstraZeneca and Pfizer COVID vaccines 28 days following the first dose.
- The same people were more likely to have a higher antibody response at all times following vaccination.
- The gene was present in around a third of people reporting COVID-19 symptoms with a positive test for SARS-CoV-2, but was found in almost half of those who did not report symptoms.
Julian Knight, Professor of Genomic Medicine at the University’s Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics and Chief Investigator of the study, said:
From this study we have evidence that our genetic makeup is one of the reasons why we may differ from each other in our immune response following COVID-19 vaccination. We found that inheriting a specific variant of an HLA gene was associated with higher antibody responses but this is only the start of the story.
Further work is needed to better understand the clinical significance of this specific association, and more broadly what identifying this gene variant can tell us about how effective immune responses are generated and ways to continue to improve vaccines for everyone.
Dr Alexander Mentzer, NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics and a lead researcher on the study, said:
We have seen a wide variation in how quickly people test positive for COVID-19 after vaccination. Our findings suggest that our genetic code may influence how likely this is to happen over time.
We hope that our findings will help us improve vaccines for the future so they not only stop us developing severe disease, but also keep us symptom-free for as long as possible.
Dr Daniel O’Connor, University Research Lecturer at the Oxford Vaccine Group and co-author of the study, said:
This study shows that our genetic makeup, in addition to factors such as age and health status, impacts on how well we respond to vaccines and our subsequent risk of diseases — such as COVID-19 — which could have important implications in the design and implementation of future vaccines.