Assessment of Oxidative Stress Markers in COVID-19 Vaccinated Individuals in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The emergence of COVID-19 led to the rapid development and widespread use of vaccines to reduce disease severity and mortality. However, concerns persist regarding vaccine-induced immune responses and their potential effects on oxidative stress and overall health. Aim: The study aims to assess the level of some oxidative markers in COVID-19 vaccinated individuals in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. Study Design: Case-controlled study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Obio/Akpor, Phalga and PAMEL Laboratories and Diagnostics, Port Harcourt, between August 2021-October 2022. Methodology: One hundred and forty-eight (148) participants that resides in Rivers State and had received first/full dose of any of the COVID-19 vaccine and 50 subjects that were not vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccine were recruited for the study. Convenient simple randomized sampling method was employed for the study and a questionnaire distributed to all participants. Ten milliliters of whole blood were drawn from each subject using a plain bottle and allowed to clot, the serum was obtained and used for the analysis of oxidative markers using ELISA methods. The parameters analyzed included: Malondialdehyde (MDA) , total antioxidant capacity (TAC), oxidative stress index (OSI). GraphPad Prism version 9.04 of Apple Macintosh HD Big Sur (version 11.0) was used for statistical analysis and variation among means of parameters were considered significant at p <0.05. Results: The results showed increased mean OSI (7.97±4.81) among the test group, although the mean difference among the two groups was not statistically significant (p=0.1541). There were also non-significant increases and decreases in the oxidative stress parameters in different groups and classifications. However, significant decreases were observed in OSI for the time intervals of 4-7 months and 8-12 months when compared with <1 month interval (F=2.803, p=0.0285). Conclusion: The findings in this study suggest that COVID-19 vaccines may not be associated with oxidative stress induction, also immunity built from the vaccine is not tied to the dosage (number of shots) or vaccine type.