Vaccinations, Spike Protein and Myocarditis
-
https://www.jwatch.org/na55722/2023/01/23/myocarditis-after-covid-19-vaccination-spike-protein
Myocarditis After COVID-19 Vaccination: Is Spike Protein the Culprit?
George Sakoulas, MD, reviewing Yonker LM et al. Circulation 2023 Jan 4
Adolescents and young adults who developed myocarditis after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination demonstrated persistent full-length spike protein antigenemia.
Approximately 1–2 cases per 100,000 recipients (more often males) of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine develop myocarditis or pericarditis, but the specific cause of this complication remains unknown. In a study of 61 adolescents and young adults who received SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination, Yonker et al. assessed SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and T-cell responses, autoantibodies, cytokines, and SARS-CoV-2 antigen profiles. Participants included 16 patients with myocarditis after vaccination (81% male) and 45 healthy, asymptomatic, age-matched, vaccinated controls (40% male). Blood samples were collected a median 4 days after vaccination (range, 1–19 days) for cases and 14 days (range, 4–21 days) for controls.
Antibody and T-cell responses were indistinguishable between cases and controls. Myocarditis cases had significantly higher levels of IL-8, IL-6, TNF-alpha, IL-10, IFN-gamma, IL1-beta, and IL-4. Whereas no circulating spike protein was identified in the plasma of the control patients, full-length free spike protein was detected in myocarditis cases (mean, 33.9 pg/mL, p<0.0001). No evidence of autoantibody production, concomitant viral infections, or excessive antibody production was seen in myocarditis cases compared to controls
COMMENT
While these results should not affect decision making regarding when to administer COVID-19 vaccine, they suggest that myocarditis after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination is related to differences in processing or clearing antigens generated by translation of liposomally protected vaccine mRNA rather than an exaggerated or dysregulated immune response. The finding that circulating spike protein is not antibody-bound distinguishes post-vaccine myocarditis from MIS-C and MIS-A (where spike protein immune complexes trigger massive systemic inflammation). Studies such as this one will further our understanding of vaccine-associated complications as well as COVID-19 itself.The original article:
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.061025
-
https://www.jwatch.org/na55722/2023/01/23/myocarditis-after-covid-19-vaccination-spike-protein
Myocarditis After COVID-19 Vaccination: Is Spike Protein the Culprit?
George Sakoulas, MD, reviewing Yonker LM et al. Circulation 2023 Jan 4
Adolescents and young adults who developed myocarditis after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination demonstrated persistent full-length spike protein antigenemia.
Approximately 1–2 cases per 100,000 recipients (more often males) of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine develop myocarditis or pericarditis, but the specific cause of this complication remains unknown. In a study of 61 adolescents and young adults who received SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination, Yonker et al. assessed SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and T-cell responses, autoantibodies, cytokines, and SARS-CoV-2 antigen profiles. Participants included 16 patients with myocarditis after vaccination (81% male) and 45 healthy, asymptomatic, age-matched, vaccinated controls (40% male). Blood samples were collected a median 4 days after vaccination (range, 1–19 days) for cases and 14 days (range, 4–21 days) for controls.
Antibody and T-cell responses were indistinguishable between cases and controls. Myocarditis cases had significantly higher levels of IL-8, IL-6, TNF-alpha, IL-10, IFN-gamma, IL1-beta, and IL-4. Whereas no circulating spike protein was identified in the plasma of the control patients, full-length free spike protein was detected in myocarditis cases (mean, 33.9 pg/mL, p<0.0001). No evidence of autoantibody production, concomitant viral infections, or excessive antibody production was seen in myocarditis cases compared to controls
COMMENT
While these results should not affect decision making regarding when to administer COVID-19 vaccine, they suggest that myocarditis after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination is related to differences in processing or clearing antigens generated by translation of liposomally protected vaccine mRNA rather than an exaggerated or dysregulated immune response. The finding that circulating spike protein is not antibody-bound distinguishes post-vaccine myocarditis from MIS-C and MIS-A (where spike protein immune complexes trigger massive systemic inflammation). Studies such as this one will further our understanding of vaccine-associated complications as well as COVID-19 itself.The original article:
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.122.061025
@George-K said in Vaccinations, Spike Protein and Myocarditis:
Approximately 1–2 cases per 100,000 recipients (more often males)
In a study of 61 adolescents and young adults who received SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination
Participants included 16 patients with myocarditis after vaccination16 out of 61 = 1 or 2 per 100,000 ?
I'm missing a key number here
-
METHODS:
From January 2021 through February 2022, we prospectively collected blood from 16 patients who were hospitalized at Massachusetts General for Children or Boston Children’s Hospital for myocarditis, presenting with chest pain with elevated cardiac troponin T after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. We performed extensive antibody profiling, including tests for SARS-CoV-2–specific humoral responses and assessment for autoantibodies or antibodies against the human-relevant virome, SARS-CoV-2–specific T-cell analysis, and cytokine and SARS-CoV-2 antigen profiling. Results were compared with those from 45 healthy, asymptomatic, age-matched vaccinated control subjects
