Natalizumab wearing-off symptoms: effect of extend interval dosing during Sars-CoV-2 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Many patients treated with Natalizumab experience wearing-off symptoms (WoS) towards the end of the administration cycle. During the pandemic we advised and asked patients undergoing treatment with Natalizumab if they wanted to be shifted from a standard interval dosing (StID of 4 weeks) to an extended interval dosing (ExID of 5-6 weeks), regardless of their JCV index. Our main objective was to study prevalence and incidence of WoS when ExID was adopted. METHODS: We enrolled 86 patients, from May 2020 to January 2021, evaluated at baseline and during a 6 months follow-up with a survey focused on WoS, Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) and MRI. RESULTS: Among the 86 patients, 32 (37.2%) reported WoS. Most common one was fatigue (93.7%). Mean EDSS was higher in the group reporting WoS (3.8 WoS vs 3.1 non-WoS, p < 0.05). Sphincterial function was the EDSS item that significantly differed between the WoS group and the non-WoS group (1.4 WoS vs 0.6 non-WoS, p < 0.001). WoS correlate with the FSS scale (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Adopting an extended interval dosing does not result in significantly different occurrence of WoS between the ExID and the StID populations, in our cohort of patients. Interestingly, there is a strong correlation between WoS and a higher EDSS and FSS. Safety and efficacy of Natalizumab with ExID are relatively preserved in our study.

The wearing-off phenomenon of ocrelizumab in patients with multiple sclerosis.

BACKGROUND: Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) who are treated with monoclonal antibodies frequently report an increase of MS-related symptoms prior to the next dose known as the wearing-off phenomenon. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and predicting factors of the wearing-off phenomenon in patients with MS using ocrelizumab. METHODS: This was a prospective cohort study in patients with MS receiving ocrelizumab ≥1 year. Most participants received B-cell guided personalized extended interval dosing to limit ocrelizumab exposure and hospital visits during the COVID-19 pandemic (cut-off ≥ 10 cells/µL). Participants completed questionnaires during ocrelizumab infusion and 2 weeks thereafter. Demographics, clinical and radiological characteristics, CD19 B-cell counts, and serum neurofilament light (sNfL) levels were collected. Data were analyzed using logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Seventy-one (61%) out of 117 participants reported the wearing-off phenomenon during ocrelizumab treatment. The most frequently reported symptoms were fatigue, cognitive disability and sensory symptoms. Wearing-off symptoms started < 1 week (11%), 1-4 weeks (49%) or more than 4 weeks (37%) before ocrelizumab infusion. Fifty participants (43%) reported a current wearing-off phenomenon at the first questionnaire. Higher body mass index (threshold BMI ≥ 25) increased the odds of reporting a current wearing-off phenomenon (OR 2.70, 95% CI 1.26 to 5.80, p = .011). Infusion interval, EDSS score, MRI disease activity, clinical relapses, CD19 B-cell counts, and sNfL levels were no predictors. Disappearance of the wearing-off phenomenon occurred in the first week after ocrelizumab infusion in most participants. Participants with a current wearing-off phenomenon significantly improved in self-reported physical and psychological functioning after ocrelizumab infusion. Reporting the wearing-off phenomenon did not influence treatment satisfaction. Forty of 109 participants (37%) reported post-infusion symptoms, such as fatigue, flu-like symptoms or walking difficulties. These post-infusion symptoms started directly or in the first week after ocrelizumab infusion and disappeared within 2 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: The wearing-off phenomenon is reported by more than half of patients with MS using ocrelizumab. Only BMI was identified as a predicting factor. The wearing-off phenomenon was not elicited by extending infusion intervals or higher B-cell counts. The wearing-off phenomenon of ocrelizumab therefore does not seem to reflect suboptimal control of MS disease activity.

Wearing-off symptoms during standard and extended natalizumab dosing intervals: Experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Natalizumab effectively prevents disease activity in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, but many treated patients report subjective wearing-off symptoms at the end of the 4-week interval between infusions. Extended interval dosing (EID) is a promising strategy to mitigate the risk of natalizumab-associated progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, but it is unknown whether EID affects wearing-off symptoms. In this observational study, we evaluated if prevalence or intensity of wearing-off symptoms changed when natalizumab dosing intervals were extended from 4 to 6 weeks in 30 treated patients during the outbreak of COVID-19 in Norway. New or increased wearing-off symptoms during EID were reported by 50%. Symptom increase was more frequent among patients with pre-existing wearing-off symptoms during standard dosing compared to patients without such pre-existing symptoms [p = 0.0005]. Our observations support the need to study the effect of EID on wearing-off symptoms in randomized controlled trials.