Triple-Vaccinated People Now “Immune Imprinted”

This article originally appeared on The Epoch Times and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Marina Zhang

People who have taken at least three doses of the original version of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine have been strongly immune imprinted, a study by the University of Washington (UW) found.

Consequently, when vaccinated with the most recent COVID-19 XBB.1.5 mRNA boosters, recipients produced few to no antibodies specific to the XBB.1.5 variant.

Immune imprinting occurs when previous infections or vaccinations leave such a strong immune memory that the body continues to produce immune cells and antibodies targeting the previous immune experience—even when exposed to a new variant or vaccine.

“[Immune imprinting] could be a problem if the person was unable to mount a useful immune response against a new variant,” Dr. Stanley Perlman, an immunologist and microbiologist at the University of Iowa, told The Epoch Times. He was not involved in the study.

While that did not occur in this study, most of the antibodies made following vaccination targeted the original COVID-19 variant and not XBB.1.5. 

Surprising Findings

“Imprinting is not a new concept, but the situation we are looking at seems to be quite unique,” said David Veesler, who has a doctorate in structural biology, is a professor and chair in the Department of Biochemistry at UW, and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, in a press release.

Immune imprinting is a well-recognized phenomenon that can occur with other infections and viruses.

New influenza infections distinct from previous variants can overcome imprinting from influenza vaccinations and infections.

However, in the UW study, immune imprinting persisted even among those infected with new omicron variants.

“It is completely different from what we know from the influenza virus,” said Mr. Veesler.

“Immune imprinting persists after multiple exposures to Omicron spikes through vaccination and infection, including post XBB.1.5 booster vaccination, which will need to be considered to guide future vaccination,” the authors wrote.

More than 20 people with a history of three or more Wuhan-variant mRNA vaccines participated in the study. Most had been infected with pre- and post-omicron COVID-19 infections.

In addition to the original mRNA vaccines, most participants took the bivalent booster or the XBB.1.5 booster. By the time of the study, all participants had taken four to seven shots.

The authors found that most of the antibodies produced after XBB.1.5 mRNA inoculation were best at neutralizing the original Wuhan COVID-19 variant.

Read the full story in The Epoch Times.