Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in patients with rheumatic diseases: doubts and perspectives
Maurizio Benucci, María Infantino, Daniela Marotto, Sandro Ardizzone, Mariangela Manfredi, Piercarlo Sarzi‐Puttini
Abstract
Since January 2020, the whole world has been facing the worst epidemic for a century. SARS-CoV-2 infection has so far caused more than one million deaths, with the only measures capable of containing the spread of the virus being social distancing, frequent hand washing, and the wearing of masks. Vaccine development was urgently needed and there are now more than 90 candidate vaccines being developed using different technologies. The European Medicines Agency has recently approved a second mRNA-based vaccine, but the introduction of vaccines has raised some doubts about patients with rheumatic disease, who are at high risk of infection because of disease activity and the therapies used to treat it. The aim of this study was to investigate how vaccines may interact with the immune system and treatment of such patients, and how to monitor the postvaccine antibody titres and T cell responses in order to assess their efficacy and safety. Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology 2021 SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in rheumatic patients / M. Benucci et al. 3. How might DMARDs, b-DMARDs and ts-DMARDs interfere with the vaccines? 4. How can the vaccination of RMD patients be monitored?