@article{2999809,
    title = "Impact of age and sex on antibody response following the second dose of covid-19 bnt162b2 mrna vaccine in greek healthcare workers",
    author = "Vassilaki, N. and Gargalionis, A.N. and Bletsa, A. and Papamichalopoulos, N. and Kontou, E. and Gkika, M. and Patas, K. and Theodoridis, D. and Manolis, I. and Ioannidis, A. and Milona, R.S. and Tsirogianni, A. and Angelakis, E. and Chatzipanagiotou, S.",
    journal = "Microorganisms",
    year = "2021",
    volume = "9",
    number = "8",
    publisher = "MDPI AG",
    doi = "10.3390/microorganisms9081725",
    abstract = "Anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike RBD (receptor-binding domain) IgG antibody levels were monitored in 1643 volunteer healthcare workers of Eginition, Evangelismos, and Konstantopoulio General Hospitals (Athens, Greece), who underwent vaccination with two doses of COVID-19 BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine (Pfizer) and had no history of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Venous blood was collected 20–30 days after the second vaccine dose and anti-RBD IgG levels were determined using CMIA SARS-CoV-2 IgG II Quant (Abbott) on ARCHITECT i System or ADVIA Centaur SARS-CoV-2 IgG (Siemens) on Centaur XP platform. From the total population of 1643 vaccinees (533 M/1110 F; median age = 49; interquartile range-IQR = 40–56), 1636 (99.6%) had anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG titers above the positivity threshold of the assay used. One-Way ANOVA Kruskal-Wallis H test showed a statistically significant difference in the median of antibody titers between the different age groups (p < 0.0001). Consistently, Spearman’s correlation coefficient (r) for IgGs and age as continuous variables was −0.2380 (p = 1.98 × 10−17). Moreover, antibody titers were slightly higher by 1.2-mean fold (p = 3 × 10−6) in the total female population of the three hospitals (median = 1594; IQR = 875–2584) as compared to males (median = 1292; IQR = 671.9–2188). The present study supports that BNT162b2 vaccine is particularly effective in producing high anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG levels in healthy individuals, and this humoral response is age-and gender-dependent. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland."
}