¹Amani Alghamdi, ¹Prof. Nasser Al-Daghri, ¹Kaiser Ahmed Wani, ¹Osama Emam Amer,¹Syed Danish Hussain, ¹Abdullah Mousa Alnaami,

¹King Saud University

Background(s): The worldwide emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the expeditious development and implementation of vaccinations to prevent infection and contain the spread of disease Understanding the dynamics of immune responses following vaccination is critical for optimizing vaccine strategies in future pandemics. In this retrospective longitudinal investigation we analyzed the effect of COVID19 vaccination on circulating cytokine profile in individuals living in Saudi Arabia.

Method(s): A total of 318 Saudi subjects (59.7% females), comprising individuals of varying ages from 12-60 years, received COVID-19 vaccines as per the national vaccination program. Anthropometric data and fasting blood samples were collected at specific time points pre-and post-vaccination.  Information on dates of vaccination, and whether or not infected with COVID during the study period were collected. For this study, the samples from 84 subjects were used for a comprehensive 18-parameter cytokine profiling analysis using state-of-the-art techniques. The participants were stratified into two groups based on the interval between the final vaccine dose and follow-up visits

Result(s): Results: Preliminary findings indicate that circulating cytokine profiles are importantly impacted by vaccination. Notably,  when shorter (≤ 4 months)  and longer (≥ 5 months) intervals between the final dose and follow-up were compared, significant differences in cytokine profiles were observed, as follows: interleukin-1β (6.5 (0.8 – 12.3) pg/ml vs. 0.0 (-1.3 – 4.3) pg/ml, p=0.024), interleukin-7 (6.2 (1.5 – 9.5) pg/ml vs 0.8 (-2.4 – 4.3) pg/ml, p=0.001), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (1.0 (-2.4 – 10.5) pg/ml vs. -0.8 (-5.7 – 4.5) pg/ml, p=0.028), and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (95.1 (-25.7 – 259.7) pg/ml vs. -6.5 (-83.8 – 84.1) pg/ml, p=0.019).

Conclusion(s): Conclusions: This longitudinal study sheds light on nature of the immunologic response induced by COVID-19 vaccination and indicates that vaccine-induced cytokine production wanes in-time after the last dose of vaccine  Further research is required to investigate the stability of these cytokine profiles over time and to determine their relationship with vaccine efficacy and long-term immunity