Evaluation of immune response to anti‐COVID‐19 booster in cancer patients and chronic medical cannabis users and its association with circulating Eosinophils levels

Abbreviations CBC Complete blood counts COVID-19 Coronavirus Disease 2019 EOS Eosinophils HB Hemoglobin IgG Immunoglobulin-G LYM Lymphocyte MONO Monocytes NEU Neutrophil PLT Platelet SARS-CoV-2 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 THC Tetrahydrocannabinol WBC White blood cells Dear Editor On July 29, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Health approved the third anti-Coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) vaccination (3rd-BNT162b2-booster-dose), leading to a sharp daily drop in diagnosed positive COVID-19 cases and mortality rates in Israel [ 1]. [...]the groups were: 3rd-BNT162b2-booster-dose low responders (IgG ≤4000 AU/mL) and high responders (IgG > 4000 AU/mL) (Supplementary Table S2). Since low responders may be at higher risk of COVID-19 infection due to the low anti-COVID-19 IgG titers, we tested whether this group was associated with any distinct complete blood count (CBC) features (Supplementary Table S3). Levels of hemoglobin (HB, P = 0.028), neutrophils (Neu, P < 0.042), and monocytes (Mono, P = 0.018) also showed a significant variation but only after the 3rd-BNT162b2-booster-dose (Figure 1C). [...]circulating EOS levels may serve as a clinical biomarker predicting IgG response (pre-and post-booster dose), while the other laboratory parameter prediction efficiency may be less clinically relevant when trying to identify individuals at higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease in a pre-vaccinated population. [...]our findings imply that patients can keep integrating cannabis during anticancer therapy without any major concern of compromising anti-COVID-19 protective immunity.