Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus present similar immunological response to COVID-19 BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine to healthy subjects: a prospective cohort study

Aim To compare the kinetics of neutralizing antibodies (N Alpha bs) against SARS-CoV-2 after vaccination with the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine (Comirnaty, Pfizer/BioNTech) between patients with T2DM and healthy controls. Methods NAb levels after the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine were compared between 50 patients with non-insulin treated T2DM and 50 age-, gender-, and BMI-matched healthy controls up to 3 months after the second dose. The median age of both groups was 70 years. Results On day 1, mean NAbs of the control and T2DM groups were 14.64% (standard error, SE = 2.30) and 14.04% (SE = 2.14), respectively (p value = 0.926). Three weeks later, the mean NAb values were 39.98% (SE = 3.53) in the control group and 40.97% (SE = 3.99) in participants with T2DM (p value = 0.698). One month after the second vaccination, mean NAb values increased to 87.13% (SE = 2.94) in the control group and 89.00% (SE = 2.18) in the T2DM group. Three months after the second vaccine dose, the mean inhibitory titers decreased to 83.49% (SE = 3.82) (control group) and 76.36% (SE = 3.33) (T2DM group). On all occasions, no significant difference was found between the two groups (all p values > 0.05). Conclusions Patients with T2DM present similar immunological response to COVID-19 BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine to that of healthy subjects.

Automated summary

This study compares the kinetics of neutralizing antibodies after vaccination with the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine between patients with T2DM and healthy controls. The results show that patients with T2DM exhibit a similar immunological response to the vaccine as healthy subjects.