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The following is a summary of “COVID-19 vaccination and cerebral small vessel disease progression – A prospective cohort study,” published in the December 2024 issue of Infectious Disease by Ip et al. 

The potential link between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and cerebrovascular diseases has raised concerns about the cerebrovascular safety of COVID-19 vaccines.  

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to determine the risk of radiological cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD) progression with BNT162b2 and CoronaVac.  

They enrolled community-dwelling subjects who underwent brain MRI before and 4 months after receiving either BNT162b2 or CoronaVac. Unvaccinated subjects had serial brain MRIs over the same duration. The primary outcome was the progression of a composite of 6 standard cSVD biomarkers. The risk of cSVD progression was compared between vaccinated and unvaccinated subjects, and predictors of the primary outcome were identified within each vaccine subgroup.  

The results showed that among 415 subjects, 190 received BNT162b2, 152 received CoronaVac, and 73 were unvaccinated, 60 (14.4%) had prior COVID-19 infection and 109 (26.3%) developed the primary outcome. Neither BNT162b2 (aOR 0.61, 95% CI 0.30–1.26, P =0.179) nor CoronaVac (aOR 0.71, 95% CI 0.34–1.47, P =0.349) was linked to cSVD progression. Among those receiving BNT162b2, a higher surrogate virus neutralization test (sVNT) score was associated with a lower risk of cSVD progression (aOR 0.97, 95% CI 0.95–0.99, P =0.002).  

Investigators concluded that neither BNT162b2 nor CoronaVac increased the burden of cSVD, although further research is needed to explore the potential association between serum neutralizing antibody titers and cSVD progression with BNT162b2. 

Source: ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(24)00399-0/fulltext