ArticleMultiple sclerosis and related disorders2022
Anti-Spike IgG in multiple sclerosis patients after BNT162b2 vaccine: An exploratory case-control study in Italy.
Article in Multiple sclerosis and related disorders, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Growing attention of immunogenicity among patients with autoimmune diseases post-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination: meta-analysis and systematic reviews of the current studies.Annals of medicine · 2025Pooled it
- COVID-19: The Course, Vaccination and Immune Response in People with Multiple Sclerosis: Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Pooled it
- Immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in multiple sclerosis: a systematic review/meta-analysis.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2022Pooled it
- Humoral and Cellular Immunity After Vaccination Against SARS-CoV-2 in Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis Patients Treated with Interferon Beta and Dimethyl Fumarate.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- A multicenter, prospective cohort study on the anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination response in patients with multiple sclerosis in Germany.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- Hypogammaglobulinemia is associated with reduced antibody response after anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in MS patients treated with antiCD20 therapies.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2022Article
- Vaccination and immunotherapies in neuroimmunological diseases.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
21 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPatients with neuroimmunological conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS) often receive disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) or immunosuppressants which may reduce the response to vaccines. BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) is the first COVID-19 vaccine authorized in Italy. Its clinical efficacy and serological response were not evaluated in MS patients receiving DMTs or immunosuppressants. This early multicenter study evaluated serological response to BNT162b2 and safety in these patients.
methodsFrom February 2021 we enrolled consecutive MS patients, treated with at least one DMT and all healthcare workers (HCWs), having received or being scheduled to receive the first dose of BNT162b2. Blood samples were collected after the second vaccine dose and analyzed to quantitatively detect the presence of anti-Spike antibodies. Serological response was compared to the one from a control population of HCWs, with neither neuroimmunological conditions nor receiving immunosuppressants. Patients receiving treatments associated with a possible reduced response (Under-scrutiny treatment group) were also compared to those undergoing other treatments. Anti-Spike levels were described as median and interquartile range (IQR). Comparisons were performed with Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. Solicited and unsolicited adverse events (AEs) were collected.
results39 MS patients and a control population of 273 HCWs were included. One patient, under treatment with ocrelizumab, did not respond to BNT162b2, while all the remaining patients and all controls developed a serological response to the vaccine. Median anti-Spike levels were similar between patients (1471.0 BAU/ml; IQR 779.7 to 2357.0) and controls (1479.0 BAU/ml; IQR 813.1 to 2528.0) (p = 0.53). Patients included in the Under-scrutiny treatments group showed reduced anti-Spike levels (156.4 BAU/ml; IQR 33.4 to 559.1) compared to those receiving other treatments (1582.4 BAU/ml; IQR 1296.5 to 2219.0) (p = 0.001). Solicited AEs were all mild to moderate in severity, generally reported in the first days after vaccination, and resolved in the following days. Two MS patients reported a clinical relapse after the second vaccine dose.
conclusionBNT162b2 induced a serological response in MS patients treated with DMTs similar to controls not receiving DMTs or immunosuppressants. Some treatments were associated with reduced levels of anti-Spike antibodies in patients. These observations have relevant implications for treated patients receiving BNT162b2 and the community.
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