Immunogenicity of the Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (BBIBPCorV) in Hemodialysis Patients: A Case-Control Study

Background: studies have shown that immune responses to covid-19 vaccines are impaired in dialysis patients, which may affect their immunity to vaccines. therefore, this study aimed to evaluate sars-cov-2 neutralizing antibodies in hemodialysis patients for 2 and 6 weeks after receiving inactivated sinopharm vaccine. method: in this study, 172 people were divided into two groups. the first group included 108 hemodialysis patients, while the second group included 64 health workers as a control group. to evaluate sars-cov-2 neutralizing antibody titers, peripheral blood samples were collected from all participants 2 and 6 weeks after receiving the second dose of the sinopharm vaccine. samples were centrifuged, and the neutralizing antibody against the receptor-binding domain (rbd) was determined using the indirect elisa technique. results: hemodialysis patients had lower igg-neutralizing antibody titers than the control group (p <0.001). the titers of sars-cov-2 neutralizing antibodies were not significantly different at two weeks compared to six weeks after vaccination (p=0.9204). our findings showed a significant increase in titers of iggneutralizing antibodies after vaccination in people with a history of covid-19 (p=0.002). the seropositivity rate for neutralizing antibodies against rbd was significantly different between seropositive (immune) and seronegative (non-immune) patients six weeks after vaccination (p=0.022). conclusion: the titers of neutralizing antibodies against sars-cov-2 were lower in hemodialysis patients than in healthy individuals. this is probably due to the poor immune system. however, patients who received two doses of inactivated sinopharm vaccine showed a higher antibody titer six weeks after vaccination.