medwireNews: Among people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs), levels of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 decrease in the 6-month period following two doses of messenger (m)RNA vaccines, but remain above the threshold of predicted neutralizing ability in the majority of patients, research suggests.
In the study of 326 people with RMDs – most commonly inflammatory arthritis (43%) or overlap tissue disease (25%) – the median titer of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 was 1175 units/mL at approximately 1 month after their second dose of the Pfizer–BioNTech (BNT162b2) or Moderna (mRNA-1273) vaccine. This decreased to 647.5 units/mL at 3 months and 419 units/mL at 6 months.
Despite this drop in antibody levels, 96% of participants had positive anti-spike titers (≥0.8 units/mL) at 6 months, while 80% had a high-positive response (≥50 units/mL), defined on the basis of neutralizing capacity determined in people with convalescent COVID-19 and in a previous modeling study.
Julie Paik and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, say that the proportion of patients with a high-positive antibody response at 6 months was greater among those given the Moderna versus the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine (89 vs 72%), as well as in those taking monotherapy versus combination therapy (94 vs 71%).
The study findings are published as a comment in The Lancet Rheumatology.
medwireNews is an independent medical news service provided by Springer Healthcare Ltd. © 2022 Springer Healthcare Ltd, part of the Springer Nature Group
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