Altered lymphocyte profiles and herpes zoster infections in patients with multiple sclerosis on natalizumab

Alexandra Balshi1, Nova Manning1, John Dempsey1

  • 1Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Multiple Sclerosis (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England)
|June 16, 2024
PubMed

Cases of herpes zoster (HZ) in patients with MS on natalizumab (NTZ) have been documented. In this study, we assessed lymphocyte subsets in NTZ-treated patients with HZ compared to matched controls without HZ. Twenty unvaccinated patients developed HZ while on NTZ for an incidence rate of 12.3 per 1000 patient-years. These patients had lower CD8+% and higher CD4+:CD8+ ratios (p ⩽ 0.01) than non-HZ matched controls. Two patients with relapsing-remitting MS developed HZ twice while on NTZ. These findings underscore the importance of pre-NTZ HZ vaccination due to potential HZ risk.