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Record W4411066320 · doi:10.1038/s41467-025-60216-3

No evidence of immune exhaustion after repeated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in vulnerable and healthy populations

2025· article· en· W4411066320 on OpenAlexafffundabout
Jenna M. Benoit, Jessica A. Breznik, Ying Wu, Allison Kennedy, Limin Liu, Braeden Cowbrough, Barbara Baker, Megan Hagerman, Catherine M Andary, Maha Mushtaha, Nora Abdalla, Jamie McNicol, Gail M. Gauvreau, Paul Y. Kim, Judah A. Denburg, Andrew P. Costa, Darryl P. Leong, Ishac Nazy, MyLinh Duong, Jonathan L. Bramson, Maggie Larché, Chris P. Verschoor, Dawn M. E. Bowdish

Bibliographic record

VenueNature Communications · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldMedicine
TopicLong-Term Effects of COVID-19
Canadian institutionsImpactThrombosis and Atherosclerosis Research InstituteHealth Sciences NorthHamilton Health SciencesPopulation Health Research InstituteMcMaster UniversitySt. Joseph’s Healthcare HamiltonMcMaster University Medical Centre
FundersCanadian Institutes of Health ResearchGovernment of CanadaPublic Health AgencyPublic Health Agency of CanadaMcMaster University
KeywordsVaccinationImmune systemSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)2019-20 coronavirus outbreakVirologyBetacoronavirusCoronavirus InfectionsSars virusMedicineImmunologyPandemicBiologyOutbreakInfectious disease (medical specialty)Disease

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

Frequent SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in vulnerable populations has raised concerns that this may contribute to T cell exhaustion, which could negatively affect the quality of immune protection. Herein, we examined the impact of repeated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on T cell phenotypic and functional exhaustion in frail older adults in long-term care (n = 23), individuals on immunosuppressive drugs (n = 10), and healthy adults (n = 43), in Canada. Spike-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell levels did not decline in any cohort following repeated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination, nor did the expression of exhaustion markers on spike-specific or total T cells increase. T cell production of multiple cytokines (i.e. polyfunctionality) in response to the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 did not decline in any cohort following repeated vaccination. None of the cohorts displayed elevated levels of terminally differentiated T cells following multiple SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations. Thus, repeated SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was not associated with increased T cell exhaustion in older frail adults, immunosuppressed individuals, or healthy adults. Repeated vaccination is needed to maintain high levels of SARS-CoV-2 immunity in vulnerable populations, but there is concern that it could lead to immune exhaustion. Here, the authors assess the evidence for immune exhaustion following multiple SARS-CoV-2 vaccination three vulnerable population cohorts in Canada.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.000
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.001
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Observational · Consensus signal: Observational
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: Empirical
Teacher disagreement score0.369
Threshold uncertainty score0.733

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0000.001
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0000.000
Bibliometrics0.0000.000
Science and technology studies0.0010.000
Scholarly communication0.0000.000
Open science0.0000.001
Research integrity0.0000.000
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0010.000

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.037
GPT teacher head0.407
Teacher spread0.371 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designObservational
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations5
Published2025
Admission routes3
Has abstractyes

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