Filenews 1 April 2021
The first dose of Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines produces a weakened immune response in patients treated with the drug infliximab against rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases, according to scientists in Britain.
The researchers, led by Dr Nicholas Kennedy of the University of Exeter, who did the relevant pre-publication on medRxiv, according to Reuters, studied data on 865 patients who were regularly treated with infliximab. It is a monoclonate antibody available from Johnson & Johnson under the brand name Remicade.
The scientists, including The Greek-born Dr. Nikolaos Camberides of St. Marks Hospital in London, observed "poor" antibody production after the first dose of either of the above two vaccines, which they said increases the likelihood of coronavirus infection. The immune response of these individuals is improved after the administration of the second dose, so, according to the researchers, in the case of people taking this medicine the second dose of vaccination should not be delayed.
"Until these patients make the second dose of the vaccine, they should consider that they are not protected from SARS-CoV-2 infection and continue to apply increased physical distancing and self-protection measures where necessary," the researchers stress, according to which, even after the second dose of vaccine, a small percentage of these individuals do not exhibit the necessary antibody creation.
The researchers consider it possible that their findings also apply to other drugs in the TNF inhibitor class.
Source: ygeiamou.gr
