HQ Team
March 7, 2024: An 82-year-old German male, who took Covid-19 vaccine 217 times, did not have his immune system weakened but rather strengthened, researchers said.
“Overall, we did not find any indication of a weaker immune response, rather the contrary,” said Katharina Kocher, one of the leading authors of the study, in a statement.
Even the 217th vaccination that the man received during the study still had an effect — the number of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 increased significantly as a result, according to statements from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and Universitätsklinikum Erlangen.
Researchers from Munich and Vienna along with FAU colleagues learned of the man from newspaper reports and he consented to be tested.
Some scientists thought that immune cells would become less effective after becoming used to the antigens.
“This proved not to be the case in the individual in question. His immune system is fully functional.
8 different mRNA vaccines
“Certain immune cells and antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 are even present in considerably higher concentrations than is the case with people who have only received three vaccinations,” according to the statement.
“Our test case was vaccinated with a total of eight different vaccines, including different available mRNA vaccines,” said Dr Kilian Schober, from the Institute of Microbiology – Clinical Microbiology, Immunology and Hygiene.
“The observation that no noticeable side effects were triggered despite this extraordinary hyper-vaccination indicates that the drugs have a good degree of tolerability.”
However, this is one individual case. The results were not sufficient for making far-reaching conclusions and were not recommendations for the general public, Schober said.
“Current research indicates that a three-dose vaccination, coupled with regular top-up vaccines for vulnerable groups, remains the favoured approach. There is no indication that more vaccines are required.”
More than 60 million people in Germany have been vaccinated against SARS-Coronavirus 2, the majority of them several times. The man who researchers at FAU have now examined claims to have received 217 vaccinations for “private reasons.”
Official confirmation on 134
The researchers got official confirmation for 134 of these vaccinations. Schober said the man was “very interested” in conducting an examination.
Vaccinations contain parts of the pathogen or a type of construction plan that the vaccinated person’s cells can use to produce these pathogenic components themselves.
Due to these antigens, the immune system learns to recognise the real pathogen in the event of a later infection. It can then react more rapidly and forcibly.
But what happens if the body’s immune system is exposed extremely often to a specific antigen?
“That may be the case in a chronic infection such as HIV or Hepatitis B, that has regular flare-ups,” said Schober. “There is an indication that certain types of immune cells, known as T-cells, then become fatigued, leading to them releasing fewer pro-inflammatory messenger substances.”
This and other effects triggered by the cells becoming used to the antigens can weaken the immune system. The immune system is then no longer able to combat the pathogen so effectively.
“The individual has undergone various blood tests over recent years;” Schober said.
Frozen blood samples
He permitted the researchers to assess the results of these analyses. In some cases, samples had been frozen, and the researchers were able to investigate these themselves.
“We were also able to take blood samples ourselves when the man received a further vaccination during the study at his insistence. We were able to use these samples to determine exactly how the immune system reacts to the vaccination.”
The results showed that the individual had large numbers of T-effector cells against SARS-CoV-2. These act as the body’s soldiers that fight against the virus.
The man even had more of these compared to the control group of people who had received three vaccinations. The researchers did not perceive any fatigue in these effector cells.
Memory T cells were another aspect the researchers analysed. These are cells at a preliminary stage, before effector cells. Similar to stem cells, these cells can replenish numbers of suitable effector cells.
“The number of memory cells was just as high in our test case as in the control group,” said Katharina. Further tests indicated that there was no change to the immune system’s effectiveness against other pathogens.
