Children ages 5-11 who received two doses of Pfizer’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine had heightened levels of a type of antibody suggestive of an altered immune system response one year after vaccination, a new peer-reviewed study revealed.

The team of German researchers, led by Dr. Robin Kobbe with the Institute for Infection Research and Vaccine Development at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany, looked at blood samples of 14 healthy children the day the children received dose one of Pfizer’s shot, one month afterward and one year after the children received dose two.

Screenshot from PIDJ

A year after the second dose, they found increased levels of IgG4 antibodies in the children’s blood, suggesting that their immune system switched its type of immune system response.

IgG4 is one of the four subclasses of immunoglobin, or antibodies, produced by plasma cells in the blood.

While prior studies have found elevated levels of IgG4 in adults after repeated mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, Kobbe and his co-authors said their investigation is the first showing it happens in children, too.

The researchers wrote in their report published July 30 in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, “IgG4 responses should gain more attention in health and disease, especially in the context of mRNA vaccination.”

“Understanding the unusual mechanism triggering IgG4 production is crucial,” they added, “as more mRNA vaccines are currently under development and could hit the global market soon.”

Heightened IgG4 Indicative of IgG4-related Disease

Brian Hooker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at Children’s Health Defense (CHD), told The Defender the study’s findings are very concerning because elevated IgG4 may be indicative of IgG4-related disease — a “multi-organ, fibro-inflammatory condition that usually involves the pancreas, kidneys or salivary glands but could involve any other organ.”

“Seventy to 80% of those with the disease have elevated IgG4,” Hooker said. “Although IgG4-related disease is treatable, the underlying autoimmune conditions are often chronic and will require a lifetime of treatment.”

The disease could be autoimmune in origin due to molecular mimicry from the COVID-19 vaccine, Hooker said. “It is also analogous to systemic sarcoidosis which is an inflammatory condition caused by an immune system exaggeration leading to granulomas.”

According to the Cleveland Clinic, granulomas are “clusters of white blood cells that ‘wall off’ bacteria, a foreign object or something else it thought was harmful from the rest of your body.” They most often form in the lungs, but can also form in the liver, kidney, skin or other areas of the body.

As The Defender previously reported, the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine’s propensity to alter the immune system’s functioning in this way is something discussed in Byram Bridle, Ph.D., and Dr. Harvey Risch’s new book, “Toxic Shot: Facing the Dangers of the COVID ‘Vaccines.’”

Bridle, a viral immunologist who wrote the book’s chapter on the vaccine’s “immunological harms,” did not respond to The Defender’s comment request on the German study. However, Risch — professor emeritus of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health — told The Defender in an earlier interview:

“After three to four doses of the vaccine, the antibody response of the immune system gets shifted from an IgG1 [immunoglobin type 1] or 2 response, which are neutralization responses, to an IgG4 response, which is a tolerance response.”

“Tolerance” describes how the immune system reduces its overreaction to certain pathogens, for example, those related to food or seasonal allergies. This dampening of immune system surveillance could potentially leave people more vulnerable to infections and other health issues, including cancer.

IgG4 Response May Reduce Body’s Ability to Fight Cancer

When the immune system is dominated by IgG4 antibodies, the body may be less able to fight off cancer.

The authors of an April 24 review article published in Nature Reviews Immunology explained:

“IgG4 competes with other antibody (sub)classes for binding to tumour antigens and owing to its anti-inflammatory properties blocks the induction of antitumour immune responses …

”In the absence of an immune response, tumour cells have increased ability to proliferate and metastasize, resulting in disease progression and decreased survival. Immune evasion through class-switching to IgG4 has been observed in patients with melanoma, cholangiocarcinoma, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma.”

A 2022 study found that individuals with IgG4-related disease appeared to have a higher risk of cancer— especially pancreatic cancer and lymphoma — compared with the general population.

NIAID-funded Researcher Acknowledges Increased IgG4 from mRNA COVID Shots

In a commentary published Feb. 7, 2023, in Science Immunology, Shiv Pillai, M.D, Ph.D., professor of Medicine and Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard Medical School, raised questions about how increased levels of IgG4 antibodies from mRNA COVID-19 vaccines may negatively impact the immune system.

Pillai is also a program director at an Autoimmune Center of Excellence at Massachusetts General Hospital, which is funded by the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID). This year NIAID paid more than $650,000 to fund a study he’s leading on IgG4-related disease.

Pillai acknowledged that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines appear to produce increased IgG4 levels but said, “Accurately deciphering the negative consequences, if any, of increased IgG4 levels will be difficult.”

Pillai emphasized that “innumerable large studies” have shown repeated mRNA COVID-19 vaccination has protected people from severe COVID-19 symptoms and hospitalization — although the citation number he listed for this statement failed to detail any studies or reviews.

The results of recent studies linking repeated mRNA vaccines with increased IgG4 levels “nonetheless” warrant doing clinical studies on the effectiveness of spreading out mRNA vaccine boosters to possibly once per year, he said.

Pillai added that another option would be to only use mRNA antigens in the first vaccine dose for its priming effect.

The Defender reached out to Kobbe for comment on the study’s findings but did not receive a response by the deadline.

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Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D., is a reporter and researcher for The Defender based in Fairfield, Iowa.

Featured image is from CHD