Donate Now
  • What We've Learned
How safe and immunogenic is the Moderna vaccine in people with rheumatic diseases?
arc_placeholder_new
Scientific Study Title:
COVID-19 Vaccine in Immunosuppressed Adults with Autoimmune Diseases
Start Date:
  • 2021
End Date:
  • 2022
Research Category
Tags

Why did we do this research?

People with autoimmune rheumatic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus are at higher risk for severe infections. The immune systems of these patients are often suppressed due to their disease or its treatments, which could also impact how well vaccines work. Since the initial vaccine trials had excluded immunosuppressed patients, we evaluated the safety and immunogenicity (ability to generate anti-Covid antibodies) of the Moderna Spikevax vaccine in these patients. These were key questions for which there were no data at the time the study was designed.

What did we do?

  • We conducted a year-long study involving 220 participants, including adults with:
  • Rheumatoid arthritis (131 patients),
  • Systemic lupus erythematosus (23 patients),
  • other rheumatic diseases using prednisone (8 patients), and
  • healthy controls (58 people)
  • Participants received three doses of the Moderna Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine. We conducted evaluations on safety, generation of antibodies in response to vaccines, and COVID-19 infection rates. We compared these results between the rheumatic disease groups and the healthy controls, looking at:
  • self-reported adverse events,
  • levels of anti-Spike antibodies,
  • cellular immune responses to Spikevax, and
  • reported COVID-19 infections.

What are the next steps?

Following this study, we conducted a trial to evaluate strategies to enhance responses to COVID vaccines in patients on rituximab.

The Research Team

Principal Investigators

  • Ines Colmegna, MD, Research Scientist, Arthritis Research Canada (McGill University)
  • Paul R. Fortin, (https://arthritisresearch.ca/paul-fortin/) MD, MPH, FRCPC, Senior Scientist, Arthritis Research Canada, (Université Laval)

Co Investigators

  • Sasha Bernatsky, MD, MSc, PhD (McGill University)
  • Brian Ward, MD, DTM&H, MDCM, (McGill University)
  • Louis Flamand, PhD, MBA (Université Laval)
  • Marc Dionne, MD, MPH, FRCPC (Université Laval)

Media and Infographics

Related Research

What We're Working On Right Now

Exploring a New Immune Cell Therapy for People with Autoimmune Diseases

Systemic sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus are serious autoimmune diseases that can cause damage to many organs including the skin, lungs and kidneys. In this project, we will study a new type of treatment that may better control these diseases by targeting the immune cells that cause them. If successful, it could reduce inflammation, slow or stop disease progression, and may even help reset the immune system, so that some patients no longer need long-term immune-suppressing medications.
Read More

Understanding how scleroderma affects people over time

People living with scleroderma experience challenges such as pain, disability, and mental health concerns, but we still don’t know much about how these problems change over time or why some people do better than others. For this research project, our goal is to improve our understanding of how scleroderma affects people’s daily lives and identify factors that may predict changes in their health.
Read More

How can we help Canadians age at home to improve health outcomes and support a sustainable healthcare system?

As Canada’s population ages, home care is important for helping older adults remain safely within their homes. Our research team is linking data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging with health records in British Columbia, Ontario, and New Brunswick, to track patterns of paid and unpaid home care use over time.
Read More