SARS-Cov-2 vaccination strategies in hospitalized recovered COVID-19 patients: a randomized clinical trial (VATICO Trial)

Sofía Sábato, Fundació Lluita Contra Les Infeccions, Badalona, Spain.
Susana Benet, Fundació Lluita Contra Les Infeccions, Badalona, Spain.
Angela J. Rogers, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Thomas A. Murray, Division of Biostatistics and Health Data Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Melissa Skeans, Division of Biostatistics and Health Data Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Beatriz Mothe, Fundació Lluita Contra Les Infeccions, Badalona, Spain.
Roger Paredes, Fundació Lluita Contra Les Infeccions, Badalona, Spain.
Ahmad Mourad, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.
Francis Kiweewa, Strengthening Institutional Capacity for Research Administration (SICRA), Lira, Uganda.
Dena Kamel, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.
Mamta K. Jain, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.
Joseph Lutaakome, MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe, Uganda.
Mary Grace Nalubega, Strengthening Institutional Capacity for Research Administration (SICRA), Lira, Uganda.
Nicholus Sebudde, Strengthening Institutional Capacity for Research Administration (SICRA), Lira, Uganda.
Eleftherios Mylonakis, Department of Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX, USA.
Dominique L. Braun, Department of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Timothy Hatlen, The Lundquist Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA.
Ivan Kimuli, Makerere University Lung Institute, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
Cissy Kitko, Joint Clinical Research Centre, Lubowa, Uganda.
Henry Mugerwa, Joint Clinical Research Centre, Lubowa, Uganda.
Jonathan Kitonsa, MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit, Entebbe, Uganda.
Kami Kim, Tampa General Hospital, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
Phyllis C. Tien, Department of Medicine, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Jeroen Highbarger, NIAID, NIH, FNL (Frederick National Laboratory), Frederick, ML, USA.
Ashley L. McCormack, Laboratory of Human Retrovirology and Immunoinformatics, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, USA.
Adriana Sanchez, Infectious Diseases Section, VA Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA.
Daniel D. Murray, Department of Infectious Diseases, CHIP Center of Excellence for Health, Immunity, and Infections, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Abdel G. Babiker, MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL, University College London, London, UK.
Victoria J. Davey, Office of Research and Development, US Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC, USA.
D Clark Files, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Immunology, Department of Medicine, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
Annetine C. Gelijns, Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Elizabeth S. Higgs, Division of Clinical Research, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, USA.

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

3-22-2025

Journal

Scientific reports

Volume

15

Issue

1

DOI

10.1038/s41598-025-92742-x

Abstract

The impact on immunogenicity and efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in people with prior COVID-19 could differ depending on timing of vaccination and number of doses. The VATICO study randomized 66 hospitalized recovered COVID-19 individuals to receive either immediate or deferred vaccination, with one or two doses of mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. We measured binding and neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 at enrollment and longitudinally. Median (IQR) time from SARS-CoV-2 infection to first vaccination was 68 (53-75) days in the immediate group, and 151 (137-173) days in the deferred group. At week 48, timing or number of vaccine doses did not influence the change in antibody levels relative to baseline. Adherence to the assigned vaccine regimen was lower in the deferred group, particularly in participants receiving two doses. Although the study ultimately lacked adequate power to draw firm conclusions, these results suggest possible benefits of prompt vaccination after recovery from COVID-19.

Department

Medicine

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