Exploring TREC and KREC Levels in Nursing Home Residents and Staff and Their Association with SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Response After Vaccination.

Meyers, Eline; Van Biesen, Natalja; De Rop, Liselore; De Burghgraeve, Tine; Digregorio, Marina; Buret, Laetitia; Coenen, Samuel; Scholtes, Béatrice; Verbakel, Jan Y; Heytens, Stefan; Cools, Piet

doi:10.3390/vaccines13080874

Article (Scientific journals)

Exploring TREC and KREC Levels in Nursing Home Residents and Staff and Their Association with SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Response After Vaccination.

Meyers, Eline; Van Biesen, Natalja; De Rop, Liselore et al.

2025 • In Vaccines, 13 (8), p. 874

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

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https://hdl.handle.net/2268/344121

DOI
10.3390/vaccines13080874

PubMed
40872959

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Keywords :

COVID-19 vaccination; KREC; SARS-CoV-2 antibodies; TREC; nursing home residents; Immunology; Pharmacology; Drug Discovery; Infectious Diseases; Pharmacology (medical)

Abstract :

[en] [en] BACKGROUND: T-cell receptor excision circles (TRECs) and kappa-deleting recombination excision circles (KRECs) are markers of recent thymic and bone marrow output, respectively. As they have previously been associated with immunosenescence, we aimed to investigate their association with anti-spike SARS-CoV-2 (S1RBD) IgG antibody response after COVID-19 vaccination in nursing home residents (NHRs) and staff (NHS). METHODS: We measured TREC and KREC levels and S1RBD IgG antibody levels from dried blood spots (DBSs) using in-house qPCRs and a commercial ELISA kit, respectively, in 200 participants (50 NHRs and 150 NHS). DBSs were collected in April 2021, approximately two months after primary course COVID-19 vaccination (BNT162b2). We assessed the association between TREC and KREC as dependent variables and age, sex, infection-priming status, and post-vaccination S1RBD-specific IgG concentrations as independent variables by simple and multiple linear regression. RESULTS: TREC and KREC levels were significantly lower in NHRs compared with NHS and were negatively correlated with age (p < 0.001). Neither TREC nor KREC levels were significantly associated with SARS-CoV-2 antibody concentrations (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In our study population, TREC and KREC levels decreased with age and were statistically significantly lower in NHRs than NHS. They were, however, not associated with the antibody response after COVID-19 vaccination. Yet, additional research is warranted to explore their potential relevance in cellular immune responses or in combination with other biomarkers of immune function.

Disciplines :

Immunology & infectious disease

Author, co-author :

Meyers, Eline ; Department of Diagnostic Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

Van Biesen, Natalja ; Department of Diagnostic Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

De Rop, Liselore ; LUHTAR, Leuven Unit for HTA Research, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

De Burghgraeve, Tine ; LUHTAR, Leuven Unit for HTA Research, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

Digregorio, Marina ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences cliniques > Médecine générale

Buret, Laetitia ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences cliniques > Médecine générale

Coenen, Samuel ; Department of Family Medicine & Population Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Scholtes, Béatrice ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences cliniques > Médecine générale

Verbakel, Jan Y ; LUHTAR, Leuven Unit for HTA Research, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium ; NIHR Community Healthcare Medtech and IVD Cooperative, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK

Heytens, Stefan ; Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

Cools, Piet ; Department of Diagnostic Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

Language :

English

Title :

Exploring TREC and KREC Levels in Nursing Home Residents and Staff and Their Association with SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Response After Vaccination.

Publication date :

19 August 2025

Journal title :

Vaccines

ISSN :

2076-393X

Publisher :

Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), Switzerland

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

874

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/13/8/874/pdf

Funders :

FWO - Research Foundation Flanders

Funding text :

This study was funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (1SDN2524N).

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