A 62-year-old man in Germany decided to get 217 Covid-19 vaccinations over the course of 29 months —for “private reasons.” But, somewhat surprisingly, he doesn’t appear to have suffered any unwell effects from the excessive immunization, based on a newly published case study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
The case is only one person, after all, so the findings cannot be extrapolated to the overall population. But, they conflict with a widely held concern amongst researchers that such overexposure to vaccination may lead to weaker immune response. Some experts have raised this concern in discussions over how continuously people should get Covid-19 booster doses.
In cases of chronic exposure to a disease-causing germ, “there’s a sign that certain sorts of immune cells, generally known as T-cells, then grow to be fatigued, resulting in them releasing fewer pro-inflammatory messenger substances,” based on co-lead study writer Kilian Schober from the Institute of Microbiology – Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene. This, together with other effects, can result in “immune tolerance” that results in weaker responses which can be less effective at fighting off a pathogen, Schober explained in a news release.
The German man’s extreme history of hypervaccination gave the look of a great case to search for evidence of such tolerance and weaker responses. Schober and his colleagues learned of the person’s case through news headlines—officials had opened a fraud investigation against the person, confirming 130 vaccinations over nine months, but no criminal charges were ever filed. “We then contacted him and invited him to undergo various tests in Erlangen [a city in Bavaria],” Schober said. “He was very all for doing so.” The man then reported an extra 87 vaccinations to the researchers, which in total included eight different vaccine formulations, including updated boosters.
The researchers were capable of collect blood and saliva samples from the person during his 214th to 217th vaccine doses. They compared his immune responses to those of 29 individuals who had received a regular three-dose series.
Throughout the dizzying variety of vaccines, the person never reported any vaccine negative effects, and his clinical testing revealed no abnormalities related to hypervaccination. The researchers conducted an in depth have a look at his responses to the vaccines, finding that while some facets of his protection were stronger, on the entire, his immune responses were functionally much like those from individuals who had far fewer doses. Vaccine-spurred antibody levels in his blood rose after a recent dose but then began declining, much like what was seen within the controls.
His antibodies’ ability to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 seemed to be between fivefold and 11-fold higher than in controls, however the researchers noted that this was attributable to the next quantity of antibodies, not stronger antibodies. Specific subsets of immune cells, namely B-cells trained against SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein and T effector cells, were elevated compared with controls. But they looked as if it would function normally. As one other variety of control, the researchers also checked out the person’s immune response to an unrelated virus, Epstein-Barr, which causes mononucleosis. They found that the unbridled immunizations didn’t negatively impact responses to that virus, suggesting there have been no unwell effects on immune responses generally.
Last, multiple sorts of testing indicated that the person has never been infected with SARS-CoV-2. But the researchers were cautious to notice that this may increasingly be attributable to other precautions the person took beyond getting 217 vaccines.
“In summary, our case report shows that SARS-CoV-2 hypervaccination didn’t result in hostile events and increased the amount of spike-specific antibodies and T cells without having a powerful positive or negative effect on the intrinsic quality of adaptive immune responses,” the authors concluded. “Importantly,” they added, “we don’t endorse hypervaccination as a method to boost adaptive immunity.”
This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.
