Air pollution for long has been linked to adverse health outcomes, including lung cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and diabetes. Now, a study has linked higher levels of toxic particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and black carbon to lower antibody responses to Covid-19 vaccines.
The findings are published in the journal ‘Environmental Health Perspectives’. Giving details, the researchers of the study said that exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and blank carbon (BC) was associated with about a 10 per cent fall in IgM and IgG antibody responses in people without prior infection.
ISGlobal researcher Manolis Kogevinas and his team showed an association between pre-pandemic exposure to air pollution and a higher risk of developing severe Covid-19. “Air pollutants have been shown to affect immune responses,” says Kogevinas, “so in this study we wished to determine whether air pollution also affects antibody responses to COVID-19 vaccines”.
Kogevinas and his colleagues had analysed data from 927 participants of the GCAT Genomes for Life cohort (aged 40 to 65 years), who answered questionnaires and gave blood samples in the summer of 2020 (right after the first lockdown) and in the spring of 2021 (after the start of Covid-19 vaccination).
All had received one or two doses of the main COVID-19 vaccines administered in Spain (made by AstraZeneca, Pfizer or Moderna). The research team measured IgM, IgG and IgA antibodies to five viral antigens (three of them on the Spike protein contained in the vaccine). Exposure to fine particulate matter, black carbon, nitrogen dioxide and ozone was estimated for each participant based on his or her address before the pandemic.