Kinetics of pro- and anti-inflammatory spike-specific cellular immune responses in long-term care facility residents after COVID-19 mRNA primary and booster vaccination: a prospective longitudinal study in Japan

Table 1 Multiple regression analyses of possible factors underlying IFN-γ, TNF, IL-2, IL-6, and IL-10 level variations

			Univariate analysis	Multivariate analysis of factors responsible for variation in cytokine levels
		n	Age	R	Age	Sex^a	No. of Com	Immuno-suppression^b	ECOG-PS	Serum albumin	e-GFR	HbA1c	Booster vaccination type, mRNA-1273 (Moderna)^c
6 months after primary vaccination	IFN-γ	106	-0.321***	0.321	-0.321***	----	----	----	----	----	----	----	----
	TNF	106	-0.205	0.391	-0.332*	----	----	----	0.527***	0.318*	----	----	----
	IL-2	106	-0.320***	0.320	-0.320***	----	----	----	----	----	----	----	----
	IL-6	106	-0.235*	0.235	-0.235*	----	----	----	----	----	----	----	----
	IL-10	106	0.163	0.120	0.163	----	----	----	----	----	----	----	----
3 months after booster vaccination	IFN-γ	93	-0.386***	0.476	-0.317*	----	----	----	0.371*	0.448**	----	----	----
	TNF	93	-0.329**	0.329	-0.329**	----	----	----	----	----	----	----	----
	IL-2	92	-0.318*	0.386	-0.241*	----	----	----	----	----	0.230*	----	----
	IL-6	93	-0.091	0.091	-0.091	----	----	----	----	----	----	----	----
	IL-10	93	0.135	0.327	0.109	----	----	----	-0.436**	-0.447**	----	----	----

The levels of each cytokine were set as objective variables, and the following factors were considered candidate explanatory variables: age, sex, number of comorbidities (Com), immunosuppression, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status Scale (ECOG-PS) score, serum albumin, estimated glomerular filtration rate (e-GFR), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and booster vaccination type. The values presented in the table are partial correlation coefficients (r_p) except for those in the columns for n (sample size) and R (multiple regression coefficient). The level of significance of r_p is indicated by bold letters for P<0.05. Single asterisk denotes P<0.05, double asterisk denotes P<0.01, and triple asterisk denotes P<0.001
Abbreviations: IFN Interferon, TNF Tumor necrosis factor, IL Interleukin
^aThe dummy variable “sex” was coded as male = 0 and female = 1
^bImmunosuppression included receiving steroids, immunosuppressive agents, chemotherapy, or biological therapy
^cThe dummy variable “booster vaccination type” was coded as BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) = 0 and mRNA-1273 (Moderna) = 1

ISSN: 1742-4933