Abstract Aims Although age-related immune deterioration has been implicated as a mechanistic contributor to cardiovascular disease (CVD), evidence for an impairment of adaptive immune function in individuals with clinically verified presence of atherosclerosis is lacking. Methods and results To test the association between atherosclerosis and immune function we evaluated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine responsiveness in 65–71-year-old individuals (n=644) derived from a population-based cohort, characterized for subclinical atherosclerosis by coronary computed tomography angiography and carotid ultrasound. Vaccine-specific T cells were quantified by activation-induced marker (AIM) assays and antibody responses by ELISA. We did not find any significant associations between the degree of subclinical atherosclerosis or history of cardiovascular disease and vaccine-specific IgG or T cells. Vaccine immunity was not associated with lipid levels but were inversely correlated with several plasma cytokines. Conclusions Our study demonstrates that subclinical atherosclerosis or prevalent CVD is not associated with impaired responsiveness to vaccination.
Andersson et al. (Mon,) studied this question.