TUESDAY, Nov. 9, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), whose treatment can weaken the immune system, still produce a strong antibody response to COVID-19 vaccination, according to a study published online Oct. 12 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Gil Y. Melmed, M.D., from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and colleagues assessed responses after mRNA vaccination in adults with IBD. Analysis included 582 patients recruited from 18 U.S. gastroenterology practices and a social media campaign. In total, there were 854 samples for antibody assessments, including 113 after the first dose, 89 after the second dose, 115 at two weeks, 366 at eight weeks, and 171 at 16 weeks.
The researchers found that 49 percent of participants had positive levels of antibodies after the first dose, 92 percent after the second dose, and 99 percent after week 2. Quantitative levels numerically increased from dose 1 to week 2, but then decreased at subsequent time points. Mean quantitative levels at eight weeks in the no immunosuppression group were among the highest, but the study was not powered to assess differences by medication subgroups.
“These findings should still reassure IBD patients — and the millions of people who use these types of immunosuppressive medications — that the immediate response to mRNA vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is good and on par with IBD patients who are not taking any drug therapies,” a coauthor said in a statement. “Even so, patients receiving anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy or corticosteroids may be the ones most likely to benefit from a third dose of the vaccine.”
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical or biomedical industries.
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