Treating psoriasis with biologics does not negatively affect COVID antibody production
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Key takeaways:
- Both vaccinated and post-infection patients with psoriasis were included in this study.
- Researchers found that IL-12/23 and IL-17 did not negatively impact COVID antibodies.
The use of biologics to treat psoriasis does not affect antibody production after a patient has had a COVID infection or vaccination, according to a study.
In early November 2023, the latest omicron variant JN.1 caused less than 5% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., according to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. As of January 2024, it was estimated to cause more than 60% of cases.
With this resurgence of COVID-19 infections, it is important for physicians to investigate the impact the treatments they’re administering may have on their patients’ antibody production, according to the study.
Given the frequent use of targeting biologics such as interleukin (IL)-12/23 and IL-17 for the treatment of psoriasis, dermatologists need “reassurance that use of biologics to treat psoriasis does not negatively affect antibody production after COVID infection or vaccination,” Benjamin Ungar, MD, of the department of dermatology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told Healio.
Ungar and colleagues conducted a study to evaluate the affects of biologic treatment on anti-spike immunoglobulin antibody levels among patients with psoriasis that have been infected with COVID-19 or received vaccination.
From June 2020 to February 2022, they collected serum samples from 150 patients aged 12 years and older with moderate to severe psoriasis that have been on the same treatment for at least 3 months.
Patients were grouped into three groups based on their treatment modality: limited (topical therapy or no active treatment), IL-12/23 inhibitors and IL-17 inhibitors. Forty-six of these samples were patients with SARS-CoV-2 that were unvaccinated at the time of infections (IL-12/23, n = 21; IL-17, n = 11; limited, n = 14) and 104 were patients at least 14 days from the second mRNA vaccine dose (IL-12/23, n = 46; IL-17, n = 33; limited, n = 35).
Results showed that, overall, antibody levels after vaccination moderately declined over time across treatment groups, with the slowest decline being among IL-12/23 antagonists. However, after adjusting for age and time since vaccination, researchers did not detect a significant difference between treatment type and titers among post-vaccination patients, with no difference detected between IL-17 or IL-12/23 vs. the limited treatment group.
The same insignificance was observed after adjustment among the post-infection patients who took biologics compared with those in the limited treatment group.
“The use of biologics in psoriasis does not negatively affect antibody production after vaccination for COVID,” Ungar told Healio. “This suggests that these biologics are safe to use in the post-COVID era, so this should not be a consideration when deciding on treatment options for psoriasis.”
Reference:
• What to know about JN.1, the latest omicron variant. https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/jn1-the-dominant-variant-in-the-covid-surge. Updated Jan. 9, 2024. Accessed Feb. 2, 2024.
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