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Covid-19: Boosters, Antibodies, and Continued Risk for the Immunocompromised

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World-leading specialist shares latest information on Covid-19 in transplant patients

On February 24th, CareDx hosted a webinar with NYU’s Dr. Dorry Segev, one of the world’s leading experts on the impact of Covid-19 on immunocompromised patients. When the pandemic hit, Dr. Segev shifted his research to better understanding vaccines in the immunocompromised, for which he has received a Letter of Commendation from Dr. Anthony Fauci. His research has been published in JAMA, and featured on CBS, NBC, NPR, and the New York Times, among other publications. In recognition of his contributions to health care, Dr. Segev was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

We adapted our webinar conversation with Dr. Segev for this article, editing only for clarity and length. Read the full article here.

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COVID-Positive Donor Organs Safe; Shorter Omicron Infectious Period?

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— Studies from a special COVID-focused ECCMID pre-conference

The use of abdominal organs from COVID-19-positive donors for transplant was safe, a small study showed.

No rejection occurred among four recipients who received liver, kidney, or pancreas transplants from four COVID-positive donors, and none of the recipients acquired a COVID infection, reported Emily Eichenberger, MD, of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, at a special COVID-focused pre-meeting of the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID). Read more.

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Damaged Lungs Breathe Life into University of Kentucky COVID Research

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on the bottom of a sealed plastic container. It doesn’t look like much ­­– in fact, it doesn’t look like anything. But this little black lump has untold potential, full of secrets for the researchers at Kentucky Research Alliance for Lung Disease (K-RALD) to discover about the pandemic that has ravaged the world for more than two years.

This black lump is a sample of a lung from a COVID-19 patient. Specifically, it belonged to Dave Hoover, the first Kentuckian to receive a double lung transplant after contracting COVID-19. Hoover fell ill in February 2021, and after declining rapidly, he was transplanted two months later. He donated his lungs to researchers in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, who added it to the K-RALD biobank of lung samples. Read more.

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Good Outcomes in COVID-19 Lung Transplants

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Patients with COVID-19-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome who received lung transplants had similar outcomes, compared to transplant patients without COVID-19, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in JAMA.

The findings demonstrate the viability of lung transplants in patients with COVID-19-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), according to Ankit Bharat, MBBS, the Harold L. and Margaret N. Method Research Professor of Surgery, chief of Thoracic Surgery in the Department of Surgery and senior author of the study. Read the full story.

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Low incidence of donor-specific antibodies for kidney transplant recipients with COVID-19

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Despite a significant decrease in immunosuppression, the occurrence of post-COVID-19 donor-specific antibodies among COVID-19-positive kidney transplant recipients was low, according to data published in Kidney International Reports.

“Greater severity of COVID-19 has been reported in kidney transplant recipients and is most likely due to comorbidities and immunosuppressive therapy,” Christophe Masset, MD, from the Clinic Institute of Transplantation Urology Nephrology (ITUN) at the University Hospital of Nantes in France, and colleagues wrote.  Read the full story.

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Kidney transplant recipients were more careful than the general population during pandemic

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During the first few waves of COVID-19, kidney transplant recipients in Norway engaged in less social interaction than the general population and strongly adhered to government advice, according to data published in Kidney Medicine.

Further, kidney transplant recipients reported feeling more concerned about infections despite living in a country with low infection rates. Read more.

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Survival High With Lung Transplant for COVID-19-Associated ARDS

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MONDAY, Feb. 14, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Lung transplantation is successful for patients with COVID-19-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), with high survival, according to a study published online Jan. 27 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Chitaru Kurihara, M.D., from Northwestern University in Chicago, and colleagues conducted a retrospective case series of 102 patients who underwent a lung transplant between Jan. 21, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, including 30 patients with COVID-19-associated ARDS.
Read the full story.

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CDC Cuts Booster Interval for the Immunocompromised

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The CDC updated its interim guidance on COVID-19 vaccination to give immunocompromised people a shorter wait for their booster shot.

It is now recommended that people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised receive a booster 3 months — down from 5 months previously — after the third dose of an mRNA vaccine, for a total of four doses. Previewed at last week’s meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), this change was attributed to concern about the immune response and loss of mRNA protection over time for these patients.
Read the full story.

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