Takeaways
Semmler and colleagues argue that vax injured persons can be distinguished from vaccinated individuals based on:
- Higher levels of the cytokine IL-6 (or IL-8)
- Higher levels of auto-antibodies against AT1R
- Lower levels of auto-antibodies against the Alpha-2 adrenergic receptor (α2b-adr-R)
Biomarkers
This study measured various biomarkers such as:
- GPCR auto-antibodies - AT1R, ETAR, alpha-1, alpha-2A, alpha-2B, alpha-2C, beta-1, beta-2, M1 to M5 muscarinic acetylcholine, MAS1
- Cytokines IL-6 and IL-8
- Auto-antibodies against IL-1-Rb (Interleukin-1 receptor type 2) and ACE2 (ACE-II)
- CRP
- Nucleocapsid and spike antibodies (to see if perhaps post vac patients are secretly Long COVID patients or if a past COVID infection might confound the test results)
- Total IgG
- Cardiac markers proBNP and Troponin T
2 of the GPCR auto-antibodies and the 2 cytokines showed the most promise in differentiating between post vac and healthy vaccinated controls. Many of the other biomarkers were not good at measuring differences between the two groups.
Healthy controls before and after vaccination
One surprising finding was that levels of most but not all auto-antibodies were lower after vaccination. 11 were lower, 2 remained about the same, and 2 increased.
The results were not so straight-forward as some auto-antibodies did not follow the trend of becoming lower after mRNA vaccination.
Vax injured subjects showed a very different response to vaccination. The changes after vaccination were absent, blunted/reduced, or even went in the opposite direction (inversed).
Characterization of vax injured / post vac patients
Vax injured = PACVS, or post-acute COVID-19 vaccination syndrome.
This research team put in a good effort to have a well-defined group of PACVS patients by excluding participants who may not necessarily be vaccine injured in the same way. See the supplementary materials for more details (Table S2).
A comparison with Bruce Patterson’s work on Long COVID patients
Patterson studied cytokines (along with B-cells, T-cells, and monocytes) in Long COVID patients. Patterson and colleagues’ paper (DOI:10.3389/fimmu.2021.700782) found that the three main predictors of Long COVID (PASC) were the cytokines IL-2, IFN-γ (interferon gamma), and CCL4 (CCL4-MIP-1β).
The German team (Semmler et al.) found that both of the cytokines that they studied (IL-6 and IL-8) had predictive value. Patterson and colleagues found that IL-6 was significantly elevated in PASC patients (and even more so in severe acute COVID patients). They also found that IL-8 was elevated in PASC patients.
Columns for both IL-6 and IL-8 are shown in the Patterson/IncellDX group paper below:
Table 1B from Patterson et al. DOI:10.3389/fimmu.2021.700782
Closing Thoughts
This is a very useful study because it adds to our knowledge about biomarkers for vaccine injury. There have been many theories about increased autoimmunity and increase auto-antibodies causing problems in post vac patients. However, this research suggests that some auto-antibodies are lower in post vac patients (!). That is an unusual finding.
Other groups have found null results for auto-antibodies and cytokines for Long COVID and ME/CFS. So there will likely be some debate as to how useful those biomarkers are.
We also have some data showing that CRP (a common test) and certain other tests (cardiac, total IgG) are not that useful for diagnosing vaccine injury. However, those tests are likely still useful for diagnosing other conditions.