Skip to main content
Premium Trial:

Request an Annual Quote

Another Dose for Immunocompromised Considered

An advisory panel in the US is to weigh whether individuals with compromised immune systems should be able to receive an additional SARS-CoV-2 vaccine dose, according to the Washington Post.

Pfizer and BioNTech last week announced they were testing a booster of its SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, which they said leads to a 5- to 10-fold increase in neutralization titers. Officials from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though, said there was not enough data to support the need for a booster.

This CDC advisory panel, the Post notes, will focus on the portion of the population that is immunocompromised, such as individuals with cancer, organ transplant recipients, and people with HIV. Some immunocompromised individuals may not have had as robust a response to vaccination as healthy individuals, it adds, and an additional vaccine dose might increase that response and their protection.

The data there might be mixed, according to the Post. Massachusetts General Hospital's Camille Kotton tells it that organ transplant patients appear to have a lower response to vaccine, suggesting that another dose maybe warranted but Tufts Medical Center's Helen Boucher tells it she has not seen any data supporting additional doses for anyone, including the immunocompromised.

The Scan

Tara Pacific Expedition Project Team Finds High Diversity Within Coral Reef Microbiome

In papers appearing in Nature Communications and elsewhere, the team reports on findings from the two-year excursion examining coral reefs.

Study Examines Relationship Between Cellular Metabolism, DNA Damage Repair

A new study in Molecular Systems Biology finds that an antioxidant enzyme shifts from mitochondria to the nucleus as part of the DNA damage response.

Stem Cell Systems Targets Metastatic Melanoma in Mouse Model

Researchers in Science Translational Medicine describe a pair of stem cell systems aimed at boosting immune responses against metastatic melanoma in the brain.

Open Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas Team Introduces Genomic Data Collection, Analytical Tools

A study in Cell Genomics outlines open-source methods being used to analyze and translate whole-genome, exome, and RNA sequence data from the Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas.