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Observational Study
. 2021 Dec 15:361:577746.
doi: 10.1016/j.jneuroim.2021.577746. Epub 2021 Oct 9.

Humoral immune response in multiple sclerosis patients following PfizerBNT162b2 COVID19 vaccination: Up to 6 months cross-sectional study

Anat Achiron  1 , Mathilda Mandel  2 , Sapir Dreyer-Alster  2 , Gil Harari  3 , Mark Dolev  2 , Shay Menascu  2 , David Magalashvili  2 , Shlomo Flechter  2 , Uri Givon  2 , Diana Guber  2 , Polina Sonis  4 , Rina Zilkha-Falb  4 , Michael Gurevich  4
Affiliations
Observational Study

Humoral immune response in multiple sclerosis patients following PfizerBNT162b2 COVID19 vaccination: Up to 6 months cross-sectional study

Anat Achiron et al. J Neuroimmunol. .

Abstract

Appropriate immune response following COVID-19 vaccination is important in the context of disease-modifying treatments (DMTs). In a prospective cross-sectional study, we determined SARS-COV-2 IgG response up to 6 months following PfizerBNT162b2 vaccination in 414 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and 89 healthy subjects. Protective response was demonstrated in untreated MS patients (N = 76, 100%), treated with Cladribine (N = 48, 100%), Dimethyl fumarate (N = 35, 100%), Natalizumab (N = 32, 100%), and Teriflunomide (N = 39, 100%), similarly to healthy subjects (N = 89, 97.8%). Response was decreased in Fingolimod (N = 42, 9.5%), Ocrelizumab (N = 114, 22.8%) and Alemtuzumab (N = 22, 86.4%) treated patients. IgG response can help tailor adequate vaccine guidelines for MS patients under various DMTs.

Keywords: COVID-19; Disease modifying treatments; Humoral immunity; IgG antibody; Multiple sclerosis; Vaccination.

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Conflict of interest statement

AA, MD, SM, DM, SF received research support from Bristol Myers Squibb, Roche, Biogen Idec, Sanofi-Genzyme, and Merck, none related to this study. MM, SDA, GH, UG, DG, PS, RZF, MG report no conflict of interest.

Figures

Unlabelled Image
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Post-vaccination COV-2 IgG antibody titer by DMTs in relation absolute lymphocyte count presented as grading >1500 cells/mm3 (green circles), between 1000 and 1500/cells mm3 (purple), between 500 and 1000/cells mm3 (orange), <500/mm3 (red), no data (grey). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Time in months from the last DMT dosing to COVID-19 vaccination for MS patients treated with Alemtuzumab, Cladribine or Ocrelizumab in relation to post-vaccination SARS-COV-2 IgG. Post-vaccination SARS-COV-2 IgG antibody titer by time (months) from last DMT dosing is shown in relation to absolute lymphocyte count presented as grading >1500 cells/mm3 (green circles), between 1000 and 1500/cells mm3 (purple), between 500 and 1000/cells mm3 (orange), <500/mm3 (red), no data (grey). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
SARS-COV-2 specific humoral and cellular immune responses following COVID-19 vaccination in healthy subjects and MS patients.
Supplementary Fig. 1
Supplementary Fig. 1
SARS-COV-2 specific immune responses following COVID-19 vaccination. A. Memory B-cells specific for SARS-COV-2 RBD, left panel positive result, right panel negative result; B. T-cells secreting IFN-γ, left panel positive control, middle panel positive result, right panel negative result; C. T-cells secreting IL-2, left panel positive control, middle panel positive result, right panel negative result.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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