March 4, 2025
The University of Tokyo
Keio University
Osaka University
RIKEN
Highlights
It is known that the ability to acquire immunity through vaccination varies among individuals, but the underlying factors are still not well understood.
By analyzing the germline genome sequences of COVID-19 vaccine recipients, we identified genes (the IGHG1 gene and HLA genes) involved in the ability to acquire antibody titers and T-cell immune responses. Furthermore, we revealed that acquired somatic mutations in these genetic regions and on sex chromosomes decrease the ability to acquire antibodies while increasing susceptibility to infectious and immune diseases.
This is expected not only to contribute to the development of vaccines and the formulation of vaccination strategies as countermeasures for future pandemics but also to lead to a more detailed understanding of the decline in immune function that occurs with aging.
A research group led by Assistant Professor Kyuto Sonehara (at the time of the research, currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wellcome Sanger Institute) of the Department of Statistical Genetics, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, The University of Tokyo; Professor Yukinori Okada (also a Professor in the Department of Statistical Genetics, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, and a Team Leader at the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences); Senior Assistant Professor Yoshinori Kamino from the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine; Senior Assistant Professor Min-Go Nangu of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the same university's School of Medicine; and Professor Koichi Matsuda of the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo (also a Project Professor in the Division of Sequencing Technology, The Institute of Medical Science at the same university), has identified human genome sequences that contribute to individual differences in the ability to acquire immunity from vaccination through a comprehensive analysis of the immunogenicity of samples from 2,096 COVID-19 vaccine recipients. They revealed that not only germline mutations but also somatic mutations acquired with aging affect the ability to acquire immunity.
These findings are expected not only to be useful for developing vaccines and formulating vaccination strategies as countermeasures for future pandemics but also to lead to a more detailed understanding of the changes in immune function that occur with aging.
This research was published in the international scientific journal Cell Genomics on March 4, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
For the full press release, please see below.