{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,4]],"date-time":"2026-03-04T10:42:00Z","timestamp":1772620920866,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,4]],"date-time":"2026-03-04T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1772582400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Immunol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Recent studies have shown a link between iron status and immune response following infection or vaccination. We aimed to investigate whether plasma ferritin and plasma iron concentrations at time of vaccination were associated with the development and temporal decay of immune response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination over 6 months.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Materials and methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We used data from the Zurich SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Cohort (n=572). Participants were recruited from a random sample stratified by age groups (18\u201364 years, &amp;gt;65 years) and vaccine types (Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2, Moderna mRNA-1273, Johnson &amp;amp; Johnson JNJ-78436735). Iron parameters were measured at baseline (prior to vaccination), whereas different immunity markers were measured at baseline, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months. We investigated the association between plasma ferritin and plasma iron levels and immunity markers using linear mixed-effect models, and estimated half-life based on linear decay models.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Plasma ferritin and plasma iron concentrations were within the normal physiological range, and the prevalence of iron deficiency (4.5%) and inflammation (2.3%) was low. For every 50 \u03bcg\/L increase in plasma ferritin concentration, we observed a 5.2% increase in Anti-S IgG antibodies, and a 13.6-19.9% increase in neutralizing antibodies against the Ancestral, Delta, and Omicron BA1 viral variants. Similarly, the highest plasma ferritin quartile showed a 14.9% increase in Anti-S IgG antibodies, and a 47.1-82.2% increase in Anti-Ancestral, Anti-Delta, and Anti-Omicron neutralizing antibodies compared to the lowest quartile. Despite high concentrations at 6 months, shorter mean half-lives of Anti-S IgG antibodies were observed in the highest quartiles of plasma ferritin concentrations (Q3: 121.4 days; Q4: 109.8 days\n                      <jats:italic>vs<\/jats:italic>\n                      . Q1: 152.1 days). Plasma iron results were less consistent and generally no evidence for associations was found.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>In this predominantly iron-replete cohort, higher plasma ferritin at the time of vaccination was associated with stronger vaccination-induced humoral immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 over 6 months.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fimmu.2026.1764884","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,4]],"date-time":"2026-03-04T05:40:56Z","timestamp":1772602856000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Association of plasma ferritin and plasma iron at time of vaccination with the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination: a longitudinal cohort study"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Giulia","family":"Pestoni","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Nutrition Group, Swiss Distance University of Applied Sciences (FFHS)\/University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI)","place":["Zurich, Switzerland"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dominik","family":"Menges","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute (EBPI), University of Zurich (UZH)","place":["Zurich, Switzerland"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Craig","family":"Fenwick","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Service of Immunology and Allergy, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), University of Lausanne (UNIL)","place":["Lausanne, Switzerland"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Pornpimol","family":"Scheuchzer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nutrition Group, Swiss Distance University of Applied Sciences (FFHS)\/University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI)","place":["Zurich, Switzerland"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Julia","family":"Braun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute (EBPI), University of Zurich (UZH)","place":["Zurich, Switzerland"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sarah R.","family":"Haile","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute (EBPI), University of Zurich (UZH)","place":["Zurich, Switzerland"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tala","family":"Ballouz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute (EBPI), University of Zurich (UZH)","place":["Zurich, Switzerland"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Christophe","family":"Zeder","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, ETH Zurich","place":["Zurich, Switzerland"]},{"name":"Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, ETH Zurich","place":["Zurich, Switzerland"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nicole U.","family":"Stoffel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, ETH Zurich","place":["Zurich, Switzerland"]},{"name":"Nuffield Department of Orthopedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Medicine, Botnar Research Centre, University of Oxford","place":["Oxford, United Kingdom"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Michael B.","family":"Zimmermann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Research Council Translational Immune Discovery Unit, MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford","place":["Oxford, United Kingdom"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Milo A.","family":"Puhan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute (EBPI), University of Zurich (UZH)","place":["Zurich, Switzerland"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Anja","family":"Frei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute (EBPI), University of Zurich (UZH)","place":["Zurich, Switzerland"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Diego","family":"Moretti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nutrition Group, Swiss Distance University of Applied Sciences (FFHS)\/University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI)","place":["Zurich, Switzerland"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","unstructured":"COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1182\/blood-2018-05-815944","article-title":"Iron deficiency","volume":"133","author":"Camaschella","year":"2019","journal-title":"Blood"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3945\/ajcn","article-title":"Iron status in pregnant women and women of reproductive age in 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