COVID-19 vaccine elicits weak antibody response in people taking immunosuppressant

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/935586

 

 News Release 19-Nov-2021
TNF inhibitors especially impair antibody response against delta variant
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Washington University School of Medicine

 

People who received two doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine while on TNF inhibitors — a class of immunosuppressants used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune conditions — generated less powerful and shorter-lived antibodies against the virus that causes COVID-19 than healthy people and those on other kinds of immunosuppressants, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The scientists found this was especially apparent regarding the virus’s delta variant.

The good news is that a third vaccine dose drove antibody levels back up, but the researchers don’t yet know how long the levels will stay high. The findings, available online in Med, a Cell Press journal, suggest that people taking TNF inhibitors face a particularly high risk of breakthrough infections and would benefit most from a third dose.

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