Tixagevimab and cilgavimab use in Multiple Sclerosis and Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder during anti-CD20 treatment: A single-center experience.

BACKGROUND

B-cell-depleting treatments, such as ocrelizumab and rituximab (anti-CD20), reduce humoral response to SARS-CoV-2 in people with Multiple Sclerosis (pwMS) and Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder (NMOSD) and are associated with an increased risk of a more severe course of COVID-19 disease. The combination of tixagevimab and cilgavimab was authorized for COVID-19 prevention in immunocompromised subjects at high risk of severe COVID-19 disease, including patients treated with anti-CD20. Few real-world studies are available regarding the use of tixagevimab/cilgavimab in pwMS/NMOSD. In the present study, we describe the use of tixagevimab/cilgavimab for SARS-CoV-2 pre-exposure prophylaxis in a cohort of pwMS and NMOSD, treated with ocrelizumab and rituximab respectively.

METHODS

26 subjects were treated with tixagevimab/cilgavimab, while we used 18 patients as the control group. We collected clinical data at baseline in all patients and during scheduled follow up evaluations. SARS-CoV-2 serological status pre- and post-tixagevimab/cilgavimab treatment was available for 10 patients.

RESULTS

We observed no adverse events following tixagevimab/cilgavimab treatment. Post-tixagevimab/cilgavimab anti-Spike-1-RBD IgG were significantly higher when compared to baseline values. No difference was found when comparing the percentage of COVID-19 infections between groups. All patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 had mild disease which did not require hospitalization. In patients treated with tixagevimab/cilgavimab, the rate of infection among patients exposed to SARS-CoV-2 was lower, without reaching statistical significance. We observed a significantly longer negativization time in the treated group.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results are not consistent with what was observed in the registration trial and some more recent studies. We did not observe a difference in COVID-19 incidence nor in disease severity in MS and NMOSD between treated and untreated patients. Our different results may be partially explained by the change in SARS-CoV-2 variants epidemiology (i.e. reduced efficacy of tixagevimab and cilgavimab against the currently dominant variants) as well as different patient selection included in the trial and different dose of tixagevimab/cilgavimab used in other studies. The present report provides a real-life experience with tixagevimab/cilgavimab in pwMS and NMOSD treated with anti-CD20, with findings that are in line with the current SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology and the recent evidence regarding SARS-CoV-2 variants. Our results warrant further research to best treat patients in the present and future pandemic scenario.

Informations de copyright

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Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflicting interests concerning the present study.