Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jan 2;14(1):186.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-50035-1.

Cytokine signature in convalescent SARS-CoV-2 patients with inflammatory bowel disease receiving vedolizumab

Simone Dallari  1 , Vicky Martinez Pazos  2 , Juan Munoz Eusse  3 , Judith Wellens  4 , Craig Thompson  5 , Jean-Frederic Colombel  2 , Jack Satsangi  6 , Ken Cadwell  7 , Serre-Yu Wong  8 ; ICARUS-IBD Working Group
Collaborators, Affiliations

Cytokine signature in convalescent SARS-CoV-2 patients with inflammatory bowel disease receiving vedolizumab

Simone Dallari et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

While differential antibody responses SARS-CoV-2 in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) receiving infliximab and vedolizumab are well-characterized, the immune pathways underlying these differences remain unknown. Prior to COVID-19 vaccine development, we screened 235 patients with IBD receiving biological therapy for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and measured serum cytokines. In seropositive patients, we prospectively collected clinical data. We found a cytokine signature in patients receiving vedolizumab who are seropositive compared with seronegative for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies that may be linked to repeated SARS-CoV-2 infections. However, there were no differences between seropositive and seronegative patients receiving infliximab. In this single-center cohort of patients with IBD with anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore without influence of vaccination, there is a cytokine signature in patients receiving vedolizumab but not infliximab. These findings lay the groundwork for further studies on immune consequences of viral infection in patients with IBD, which is postulated to evolve from aberrant host-microbe responses.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

SD, VMP, JME, JW, CT have nothing to disclose. SYW receives grants from the NCI SeroNet, the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, New York Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, and TriNetX; and has received speaker fees from Crohn’s and Colitis Congress and Physicians’ Education Resource. JS has grant funding from UKRI, ECCO, and European Commission, and serves as Director of the UK IBD Registry; and is a member of the Independent Advisory Group to UK Government on management of COVID-19 in vulnerable individuals. JFC receives grants from AbbVie, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Takeda; serves as consultant for AbbVie, Amgen, Arena Pharmaceuticals, Boehringer Ingelheim, BMS, Celgene Corporation, Eli Lilly, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Galmed Research, Genentech, Galxo Smith Kline, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Kaleido Biosciences, Imedex, Immunic, Iterative Scopes, Merck, Microba, Novartis, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development PBM Capital, Pfizer, Protagonist Therapeutics Sanofi,Takeda, TiGenix, Vifor; received speaker fees from AbbVie, Amgen, Allergan, Inc. Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Shire, and Takeda; and holds stock from Intestinal Biotech Development. KC receives funding from US National Institute of Health (NIH) grants HL123340, DK093668, AI140754, AI121244, AI130945, DK124336, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Pfizer, and Takeda-Columbia-NYU Alliance; has severed as consultant for or received speaker fees from Puretech Health, Abbvie, and Genentech.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cytokine array reveals unique clustering of IBD patients by presence or absence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. (A) Patient characteristics and antibody results of 235 IBD patients screened for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. *One patient received certolizumab pegol. All other patients received infliximab. (B) Heatmap of cytokine array results showing the top ten cytokines associated with each cluster. (C) UMAP plot of patients by cluster and SARS-CoV-2 sero-status. (D) Graph showing distribution of total and SARS-CoV-2 seronegative and seropositive patients in clusters 0–5 by percentage of patients within each group, respectively. (E) Cluster distribution of all patients (E) and seropositive patients alone (F) by medication.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Violin plots comparing SARS-CoV-2 seropositive and seronegative patients receiving vedolizumab. Y-axis are log-transformed values of cytokine levels. Serum levels of the top 10 cytokines defining clusters 0 through 4 are plotted. FDR values are indicated on each graph. Red-outlined plots represent cytokines with an FDR < 0.1 between seronegative and seropositive patients within each medication group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kennedy NA, Goodhand JR, Bewshea C, et al. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses are attenuated in patients with IBD treated with infliximab. Gut2021. p. gutjnl-2021–324388. - PubMed
    1. Kennedy NA, Lin S, Goodhand JR, et al. Infliximab is associated with attenuated immunogenicity to BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in patients with IBD. Gut. 2021;70(10):1884–1893. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2021-324789. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Edelman-Klapper H, Zittan E, Bar-Gil Shitrit A, et al. Lower serologic response to COVID-19 mRNA vaccine in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases treated with anti-TNFα. Gastroenterology. 2022;162(2):454–467. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2021.10.029. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lin S, Kennedy NA, Saifuddin A, et al. Antibody decay, T cell immunity and breakthrough infections following two SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses in inflammatory bowel disease patients treated with infliximab and vedolizumab. Nat. Commun. 2022;13(1):1379. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-28517-z. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wellens J, Edmans M, Obolski U, et al. Combination therapy of infliximab and thiopurines, but not monotherapy with infliximab or vedolizumab, is associated with attenuated IgA and neutralisation responses to SARS-CoV-2 in inflammatory bowel disease. Gut. 2021 doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2021-326312. - DOI - PubMed