Monitoring Immune Responses to the COVID-19 Vaccine in People Living with HIV-1

Google translate: People who are immunosuppressed or suffer from chronic inflammatory diseases have an increased risk of complications related to SARS-CoV-2 infection, in addition to having an often reduced vaccine response. People living with HIV (PLHIV) also have chronic inflammation, which makes them more susceptible to complications. We will analyze the immune response of a cohort of 100 PLHIV vaccinated against COVID-19 and followed every six months at the UHRESS of the CHU de Quebec. Information on COVID-19 vaccination and risk factors leading to severe COVID will be collected. Serological and cellular immunity analyzes (innate and acquired) will be carried out at admission and at 6 months. A cohort of 200 vaccinated people working in the retail trade (PTCD) and whose data we already have will be used as a comparison group. We propose to complete this transdisciplinary analysis with the study of the innate immune response in PLHIV by analyzing neutrophil responses. Indeed, the human neutrophil being the most abundant leukocyte in the bloodstream and an important player in the development of the innate and inflammatory immune response, we hypothesize that the measurement of the intensity of the functional responses of the neutrophil could predict good vaccine protection, while being different between the cohorts of PLHIV and PTCD. This study will make it possible to characterize the elements of the innate immune response of PLHIV to the vaccine against COVID-19, in addition to establishing the correlations between the cellular response and various serological markers, with the aim of suggesting or not a third dose of vaccine. or the addition of anti-inflammatory treatment. This project will be carried out by a multidisciplinary team covering clinical and fundamental aspects of virology, as well as functional immune responses including the neutrophil.]