Multiple myeloma patients receiving anti-CD38 monoclonal antibodies had impared immune responses before receiving their SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, according to Dr. Takamatsu from Kanazawa University who presented data at the recent American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting.
The impared responses included humoral responses (i.e. your immunoglobulin levels, like IgG levels) and T cell immunity. The IgG responses and T-cell immunity were not strongly linked, so evaluation of these both measurements before and after vaccination would be important to measure.
Multiple studies have already analyzed anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody reactions and T-cell responses, but none had used deep Next-Generation Sequencing to study entire T-Cell clones against SARS-CoV-2.
In the study, researchers analyzed patients who received two-dose mRNA vaccination:
They collected serum and peripheral blood samples two times:
Finally, they analyzed their antibody responses.
As you can see in the following scatterplot, the relationship between IgG levels and T-cell clonal depth only showed a moderate correlation.
Below I added a “Scatterplot Cheatsheet” to help you understand the graph above.
As you can see, the closer together the dots are, the stronger the correlation between the two; and the further apart, the weaker the correlation.
The graph presented in the study resembles the baby blue graph “Low Positive Correlation.”
Koushik, C. S. (2020). Scatter Plot - A Tool for Descriptive Statistics. Medium.com. Retrieved 2022, from https://medium.com/swlh/scatter-plot-a-tool-for-descriptive-statistics-4b746d36f94.
about the author
Patricia Flores
Patricia is an International Medical Graduate who joined HealthTree in 2020 as part of the Patient Experience team. She helps patients understand and track their lab & genetic test results as well as relevant information from their health history. She loves ballet, traveling, and reading a good science fiction book as often as possible.
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