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Chicago, U.S. | Xinhua | COVID-19 vaccination elicited antibody responses in nearly nine out of 10 people with weakened immune systems, although their responses were only about one-third as strong as those mounted by healthy people, according to a study of researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
To determine how well people taking immunosuppressive drugs respond to COVID-19 vaccination, the researchers pulled together a participant group comprising 133 patients and 53 healthy people for comparison. The patients each were taking at least one immune-suppressing medication for illnesses such as inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis, lupus and multiple sclerosis.
Participants provided blood samples within two weeks before receiving the first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine and within three weeks after receiving the second dose. The researchers measured each participants’ antibody levels and counted the number of antibody-producing cells in their blood samples. During the period, all patients stayed on their prescribed drug regimens, except for three whose medications were paused within one week of immunization.
The researchers found that all healthy participants and 88.7 percent of the immunosuppressed participants produced antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. However, antibody levels and the number of antibody-producing cells in the immunosuppressed group were one-third as high as those in the healthy group.
Two classes of drugs led to particularly weak immune responses. Only 65 percent of people taking glucocorticoids and 60 percent of people taking B cell-depleting therapies developed detectable antibody responses. People taking antimetabolites such as methotrexate, TNF inhibitors or JAK inhibitors, on the other hand, did not generate significantly weaker immune responses than people not taking those drugs.
The researchers are preparing to follow the same group of participants as they receive their third shots. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently recommended that people taking immunosuppressants receive a third dose of the vaccine to strengthen their immune responses.
The study was published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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Xinhua
