Third dose corrects waning immunity to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines in immunocompromised patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases

ABSTRACT

Immunocompromised patients treated with immunosuppressive drugs are at increased risk of adverse outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection.1 There is limited information on the effect of immunomodulatory therapies on the quality of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-induced immunity in these populations.2 In a cohort of patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) not treated with B-cell depleting agents or corticosteroids, we recently demonstrated that antibody levels and T cell responses showed greater waning by 3 months following the second dose of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine compared with healthy controls, emphasising the need for third doses of the vaccine.3 Here, we investigated immune responses in uninfected patients with IMID following a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2 or Moderna mRNA-1273 mRNA vaccine. NS, non-significant;RBD, receptor binding domain;FPR, false positive rate;PBMC, peripheral blood mononuclear cells;DMSO, dimethyl sulfoxide;SQRT, square root. Competing interests VP has no personal financial ties with any pharmaceutical company but has received honoraria for speaker and/or advisory board member roles from AbbVie, Almirall, Celgene, Janssen, Kyowa Kirin, LEO Pharma, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi, UCB and Union Therapeutics.