In recent years, the involvement of both the innate and the adaptive immune system in the development of hypertension has been demonstrated. The observations described raise the question of whether, conversely, high blood pressure could have an impact on the immune system.
In a prospective study, scientists from the V. Medical Clinic of the University Medicine Mannheim (UMM) investigated the humoral and cellular immune response in hypertensive and non-hypertensive patients after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Humoral and cellular immune responses are the two pillars of the adaptive immune system; they are mediated by two different cell types, B cells and T cells.
Using a so-called multivariate regression analysis, they also determined whether other clinical factors such as gender, age, body mass index and risk factors such as smoking, diabetes and pre-existing chronic lung diseases influence the immune response. The study examined the long-term cellular and humoral response to SARS-CoV-2 in a cohort of healthcare workers following an outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Even at first glance, it was noticeable that infected patients with hypertension had to be hospitalized more often. The blood tests – on average seven months after the SARS-CoV-2 infection was detected – also showed that the long-term humoral and cellular immune response in hypertensive patients was significantly more pronounced than in those affected with normal blood pressure. The influence of high blood pressure on the immune system is apparently independent of the severity of the symptoms: even with mild symptoms or no symptoms at all, the SARS-CoV-2 infection led to a long-lasting stimulation of the immune system in hypertensive patients.
The other factors examined in the regression analysis had a much smaller influence on the humoral and cellular immune response. Thus, hypertension appears to be the only significant clinical risk factor associated with an enhanced long-term immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
“The observation that this long-term stimulation is specific to the local immune system of the respiratory tract is also interesting,” explains Professor Dr. Berthold Hocher. “Because if the vaccine is injected into the muscle during a vaccination against SARS-Cov-2, the response of the immune system is also significantly less pronounced in hypertensive patients,” says the study leader, who heads the “Experimental and translational nephrology”.
In summary, the study has shown that infection with SARS-CoV-2 in hypertensive patients leads to long-lasting stimulation of the humoral and cellular immune system, regardless of the severity of symptoms and is independent of other risk factors.
publication
Impact of hypertension on long-term humoral and cellular response to SARS-CoV-2 infection
Chang Chu; Anne Schönbrunn, Kristin Klemm, Volker von Baehr, Bernhard K. Kraemer, Saban Elitok and Berthold Hocher
Front. Immunol., 02 September 2022
Sec. Viral Immunology
DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.915001