Patients Taking Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Might Show Reduced Immune Response To Covid-19 Vaccine: Study

One of the studies published in the journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases has revealed that utilization of anti-inflammatory drugs might pose a comparatively weaker immune response to the Covid-19 vaccine.

Individuals dealing with immune-mediated inflammatory disorders are generally treated with drugs such as methotrexate that assist in reducing inflammation.

The disorders arise from the immune system's abnormal triggering that results in swelling, pain, and inflammation.

This particular study assessed the antibodies produced in each patient by the Pfizer-BioNTech m-RNA Covid-19 vaccine.

The researchers enrolled both healthy people and those treated for common immune-mediated disorders in this study. The two sets of people were given their two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech m-RNA Covid-19 vaccine.

Eventually, they concluded that around 90 per cent of healthy participants, along with those who took drugs other than methotrexate, displayed strong antibody responses. In contrast, the ones who took methotrexate put forth the desired responses in merely 62 per cent of the cases.

Yet, the researchers from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the NYU Langone Health in the USA have assured that a lower response of antibody in patients who have taken methotrexate does not mean that they are not safeguarded against Covid-19.

They even inferred that patients of rheumatoid arthritis who have given methotrexate show a relatively reduced response to vaccines of other seasonal flu.

"It is most important to state that patients should not be concerned about our study findings as the majority of patients with immune system disorders are responding well to the mRNA vaccines. It is also possible that methotrexate is delaying, rather than preventing, an adequate immune response against COVID-19," the study's co-author Rebecca Haberman was quoted in a report by The Week.