Assessment of Inflammatory Markers in COVID-19 Vaccinated Individuals in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Aim: To assess the level of  some inflammatory markers in COVID-19 vaccinated individuals in Port Harcourt,  Rivers State,  Nigeria.

Study design:  Case-controlled study.

Place and Duration of Study: Obio/Akpor, Phalga and PAMEL Laboratories and Diagnostics, Port Harcourt, between August 2021- October, 2022.

Methodology: A total of 148 subjects, resident in Rivers State that had received at least the first dose of any of the COVID-19 vaccines and 50 subjects that were not vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines were recruited for the study. The sampling method employed a convenient simple randomized sampling method with a questionnaire distributed to all participants. Ten milliliters of whole blood were drawn from each subject into a plain bottle and allowed to clot. The serum was obtained , and used for the analysis of  inflammatory markers using ELISA methods. The parameters analyzed included: tumor necrosis factor- alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein (CRP). GraphPad Prism version 9.04 of Apple Macintosh HD Big Sur (version 11.0) was used for statistical analysis and variation among means of parameters were considered significant at p<0.05.

Results: There was significant decrease in IL-6 (p = 0.0006), TNF-α (p< 0.0001), and increase in CRP (p < 0.0001) among the vaccinated individuals when compared with the unvaccinated subjects. Comparison between the mean values at various age ranges 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59 showed significant higher values in IL-6 (p = 0.01076) among 30-39 age groups, there was no significant difference in TNF-α (p = 0.4341), CRP (p = 0. 5144). The comparison of the mean values of the parameters by sex among the two groups showed significant differences in IL-6 (p=0.0036) and in CRP (P<0.0001). There was significant increase in TNF-α (p = 0.0008), IL-6 (p = 0.0004), and CRP (p <0.0001) among female participants.  IL-6  and CRP correlated positively with age.

Conclusion: The findings in this study suggest that COVID-19 vaccines may not be associated with inflammation. Also immunity built from the vaccine is not tied to the dosage (number of shots) or vaccine type.