Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections in MS patients on disease-modifying therapies

Patients with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) treated with anti-CD20 or fingolimod showed a reduced humoral response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

In this study we aimed to monitor the risk of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection in pwMS on different disease-modifying therapies (DMTs).

Data on the number of vaccinated patients and the number of patients with a breakthrough infection were retrospectively collected in 27 Italian MS centers. We estimated the rate of breakthrough infections and of infection requiring hospitalization per DMT.

19,641 vaccinated pwMS were included in the database. After a median follow-up of 8 months, we observed 137 breakthrough infections. Compared with other DMTs, the rate of breakthrough infections was significantly higher on ocrelizumab (0.57% vs 2.00%, risk ratio (RR) = 3.55, 95% CI = 2.74-4.58, p < 0.001) and fingolimod (0.58% vs 1.62%, RR = 2.65, 95% CI = 1.75-4.00, p < 0.001), while there were no significant differences in any other DMT group. In the ocrelizumab group the hospitalization rate was 16.7% versus 19.4% in the pre-vaccination era (RR = 0.86, p = 0.74) and it was 3.9% in all the other DMT groups versus 11.9% in the pre-vaccination period (RR = 0.33, p = 0.02).

The risk of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections is higher in patients treated with ocrelizumab and fingolimod, and the rate of severe infections was significantly reduced in all the DMTs excluding ocrelizumab.