Severity of COVID19 infection among patients with multiple sclerosis treated with interferon-β

Steve Simpson-Yap; Ashkan Pirmani; Edward De Brouwer; Liesbet M. Peeters; Lotte Geys; Tina Parciak; Anne Helme; Jan Hillert; Yves Moreau; Gilles Edan; Tim Spelman; Sifat Sharmin; Robert McBurney; Hollie Schmidt; Arnfin Bergmann; Stefan Braune; Alexander Stahmann; Rodden Middleton; Amber Salter; Bruce Bebo; Anneke van der Walt; Helmut Butzkueven; Serkan Ozakbas; Rana Karabudak; Cavit Boz; Raed Alroughani; Juan I. Rojas; Ingrid van der Mei; Guilherme Sciascia do Olival; Melinda Magyari; Ricardo Alonso; Richard Nicholas; Anibal Chertcoff; Ana Zabalza; Georgina Arrambide; Nupur Nag; Annabel Descamps; Lars Costers; Ruth Dobson; Aleisha Miller; Paulo Rodrigues; Vesna Prčkovska; Giancarlo Comi; Tomas Kalincik

doi:10.1016/j.msard.2022.104072

Severity of COVID19 infection among patients with multiple sclerosis treated with interferon-β

Steve Simpson-Yap, Ashkan Pirmani, Edward De Brouwer, Liesbet M. Peeters, Lotte Geys, Tina Parciak, Anne Helme, Jan Hillert, Yves Moreau, Gilles Edan, Tim Spelman, Sifat Sharmin, Robert McBurney, Hollie Schmidt, Arnfin Bergmann, Stefan Braune, Alexander Stahmann, Rodden Middleton, Amber Salter, Bruce BeboAnneke van der Walt, Helmut Butzkueven, Serkan Ozakbas, Rana Karabudak, Cavit Boz, Raed Alroughani, Juan I. Rojas, Ingrid van der Mei, Guilherme Sciascia do Olival, Melinda Magyari, Ricardo Alonso, Richard Nicholas, Anibal Chertcoff, Ana Zabalza, Georgina Arrambide, Nupur Nag, Annabel Descamps, Lars Costers, Ruth Dobson, Aleisha Miller, Paulo Rodrigues, Vesna Prčkovska, Giancarlo Comi, Tomas Kalincik

Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › peer-review

Abstract

Background: Interferon-β, a disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for MS, may be associated with less severe COVID-19 in people with MS. Results: Among 5,568 patients (83.4% confirmed COVID-19), interferon-treated patients had lower risk of severe COVID-19 compared to untreated, but not to glatiramer-acetate, dimethyl-fumarate, or pooled other DMTs. Conclusions: In comparison to other DMTs, we did not find evidence of protective effects of interferon-β on the severity of COVID-19, though compared to the untreated, the course of COVID19 was milder among those on interferon-β. This study does not support the use of interferon-β as a treatment to reduce COVID-19 severity in MS.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	104072
Journal	Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders
Volume	66
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msard.2022.104072
State	Published - Oct 2022
Externally published	Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Neurology
Clinical Neurology

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10.1016/j.msard.2022.104072

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Simpson-Yap, S., Pirmani, A., De Brouwer, E., Peeters, L. M., Geys, L., Parciak, T., Helme, A., Hillert, J., Moreau, Y., Edan, G., Spelman, T., Sharmin, S., McBurney, R., Schmidt, H., Bergmann, A., Braune, S., Stahmann, A., Middleton, R., Salter, A., ... Kalincik, T. (2022). Severity of COVID19 infection among patients with multiple sclerosis treated with interferon-β. Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders, 66, [104072]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msard.2022.104072

Simpson-Yap, S, Pirmani, A, De Brouwer, E, Peeters, LM, Geys, L, Parciak, T, Helme, A, Hillert, J, Moreau, Y, Edan, G, Spelman, T, Sharmin, S, McBurney, R, Schmidt, H, Bergmann, A, Braune, S, Stahmann, A, Middleton, R, Salter, A, Bebo, B, van der Walt, A, Butzkueven, H, Ozakbas, S, Karabudak, R, Boz, C, Alroughani, R, Rojas, JI, van der Mei, I, Sciascia do Olival, G, Magyari, M, Alonso, R, Nicholas, R, Chertcoff, A, Zabalza, A, Arrambide, G, Nag, N, Descamps, A, Costers, L, Dobson, R, Miller, A, Rodrigues, P, Prčkovska, V, Comi, G & Kalincik, T 2022, 'Severity of COVID19 infection among patients with multiple sclerosis treated with interferon-β', Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders, vol. 66, 104072. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msard.2022.104072

@article{79ad548da58f45a798b43f3f0827d32e,

title = "Severity of COVID19 infection among patients with multiple sclerosis treated with interferon-β",

abstract = "Background: Interferon-β, a disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for MS, may be associated with less severe COVID-19 in people with MS. Results: Among 5,568 patients (83.4% confirmed COVID-19), interferon-treated patients had lower risk of severe COVID-19 compared to untreated, but not to glatiramer-acetate, dimethyl-fumarate, or pooled other DMTs. Conclusions: In comparison to other DMTs, we did not find evidence of protective effects of interferon-β on the severity of COVID-19, though compared to the untreated, the course of COVID19 was milder among those on interferon-β. This study does not support the use of interferon-β as a treatment to reduce COVID-19 severity in MS.",

author = "Steve Simpson-Yap and Ashkan Pirmani and {De Brouwer}, Edward and Peeters, {Liesbet M.} and Lotte Geys and Tina Parciak and Anne Helme and Jan Hillert and Yves Moreau and Gilles Edan and Tim Spelman and Sifat Sharmin and Robert McBurney and Hollie Schmidt and Arnfin Bergmann and Stefan Braune and Alexander Stahmann and Rodden Middleton and Amber Salter and Bruce Bebo and {van der Walt}, Anneke and Helmut Butzkueven and Serkan Ozakbas and Rana Karabudak and Cavit Boz and Raed Alroughani and Rojas, {Juan I.} and {van der Mei}, Ingrid and {Sciascia do Olival}, Guilherme and Melinda Magyari and Ricardo Alonso and Richard Nicholas and Anibal Chertcoff and Ana Zabalza and Georgina Arrambide and Nupur Nag and Annabel Descamps and Lars Costers and Ruth Dobson and Aleisha Miller and Paulo Rodrigues and Vesna Pr{\v c}kovska and Giancarlo Comi and Tomas Kalincik",

note = "Funding Information: Ruth Dobson has participated in advisory boards for Merck, Biogen, Janssen, Novartis and Roche. Grant support from Biogen, Merck and Celgene. Funding Information: Rodden Middleton has received no personal funding from any sources, the UK MS Register is funded by the MS Society and has received funding for specific projects from Novartis, Sanofi-Genzyme and Merck KGaA. Funding Information: Helmut Butzkueven's institution receives compensation for Advisory Board, Steering Committee and Educational activities from Biogen, Roche, Merck, and Novartis. His-institution receives research support from Roche, Novartis, Biogen, NHMRC and MRFF Australia, MS Research Australia and the Trish MS Foundation. He receives personal compensation from Oxford HPF for serving on the steering group of MS Brain Health. Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The operational costs linked to this study are funded by the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF) and the Multiple Sclerosis Data Alliance (MSDA), acting under the umbrella of the European Charcot Foundation (ECF). The MSDA received income from a range of corporate sponsors, recently including Biogen, Bristol-Myers Squibb (formerly Celgene), Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Merck, Novartis, QMENTA, and Roche. MSIF receives income from a range of corporate sponsors, recently including Biogen, Bristol-Myers Squibb (formerly Celgene), Genzyme, Med-Day, Merck, Novartis and Roche. This work was supported by the Flemish Government (department EWI) under the Onderzoeksprogramma Artifici{\"e}le Intelligentie (AI) Vlaanderen (the Flanders AI Research Programme) and the Research Foundation Flanders (Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO) for ELIXIR Belgium (I002819N), The central platform was provided by QMENTA and the computational resources used in this work were provided by Amazon. The statistical analysis was carried out at CORe, The University of Melbourne, with support from NHMRC [1129189 and 1140766]. Funding Information: Anneke van der Walt has received honoraria and unrestricted research funding from Novartis, Biogen, Roche, Merck and Sanofi. Funding Information: Hollie Schmidt works for the Accelerated Cure Project for MS (ACP), which has received grants, collaboration funding, payments for use of assets, or in-kind contributions from the following companies: EMD Serono, Sanofi/Genzyme, Biogen, Genentech, AbbVie, Octave, GlycoMinds, Pfizer, MedDay, AstraZeneca, Teva, Mallinckrodt, MSDx, Regeneron Genetics Center, BC Platforms, and Celgene. ACP has also received funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and the National MS Society (NMSS). Funding Information: Amber Salter is on the editorial board for Neurology and received research funding from the Department of Defense, National MS Society and the Consortium of MS Centers. Funding Information: Jan Hillert has received honoraria for serving on advisory boards for Biogen, Celgene, Sanofi-Genzyme, Merck KGaA, Novartis and Sandoz and speaker's fees from Biogen, Novartis, Merck KGaA, Teva and Sanofi-Genzyme, has served as principal investigator for projects, or received unrestricted research support from Biogen, Celgene, Merck KGaA, Novartis, Roche and Sanofi-Genzyme, and his MS research was funded by the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Brain foundation. Funding Information: Gilles Edan has received consulting/speaking fees and research support from Bayer, Novartis, Teva, Sanofi Genzyme, Merck Serono, Biogen Idec, and Roche. Funding Information: Robert McBurney works for the Accelerated Cure Project for MS (ACP), which has received grants, collaboration funding, payments for use of assets, or in-kind contributions from the following companies: EMD Serono, Sanofi/Genzyme, Biogen, Genentech, AbbVie, Octave, GlycoMinds, Pfizer, MedDay, AstraZeneca, Teva, Mallinckrodt, MSDx, Regeneron Genetics Center, BC Platforms, and Celgene. ACP has also received funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and the National MS Society (NMSS). RMcB. has received consulting payments from EMD Serono, which have been donated to ACP. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 Elsevier B.V.",

year = "2022",

month = oct,

doi = "10.1016/j.msard.2022.104072",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "66",

journal = "Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders",

issn = "2211-0348",

publisher = "Elsevier",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Severity of COVID19 infection among patients with multiple sclerosis treated with interferon-β

AU - Simpson-Yap, Steve

AU - Pirmani, Ashkan

AU - De Brouwer, Edward

AU - Peeters, Liesbet M.

AU - Geys, Lotte

AU - Parciak, Tina

AU - Helme, Anne

AU - Hillert, Jan

AU - Moreau, Yves

AU - Edan, Gilles

AU - Spelman, Tim

AU - Sharmin, Sifat

AU - McBurney, Robert

AU - Schmidt, Hollie

AU - Bergmann, Arnfin

AU - Braune, Stefan

AU - Stahmann, Alexander

AU - Middleton, Rodden

AU - Salter, Amber

AU - Bebo, Bruce

AU - van der Walt, Anneke

AU - Butzkueven, Helmut

AU - Ozakbas, Serkan

AU - Karabudak, Rana

AU - Boz, Cavit

AU - Alroughani, Raed

AU - Rojas, Juan I.

AU - van der Mei, Ingrid

AU - Sciascia do Olival, Guilherme

AU - Magyari, Melinda

AU - Alonso, Ricardo

AU - Nicholas, Richard

AU - Chertcoff, Anibal

AU - Zabalza, Ana

AU - Arrambide, Georgina

AU - Nag, Nupur

AU - Descamps, Annabel

AU - Costers, Lars

AU - Dobson, Ruth

AU - Miller, Aleisha

AU - Rodrigues, Paulo

AU - Prčkovska, Vesna

AU - Comi, Giancarlo

AU - Kalincik, Tomas

N1 - Funding Information: Ruth Dobson has participated in advisory boards for Merck, Biogen, Janssen, Novartis and Roche. Grant support from Biogen, Merck and Celgene. Funding Information: Rodden Middleton has received no personal funding from any sources, the UK MS Register is funded by the MS Society and has received funding for specific projects from Novartis, Sanofi-Genzyme and Merck KGaA. Funding Information: Helmut Butzkueven's institution receives compensation for Advisory Board, Steering Committee and Educational activities from Biogen, Roche, Merck, and Novartis. His-institution receives research support from Roche, Novartis, Biogen, NHMRC and MRFF Australia, MS Research Australia and the Trish MS Foundation. He receives personal compensation from Oxford HPF for serving on the steering group of MS Brain Health. Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The operational costs linked to this study are funded by the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF) and the Multiple Sclerosis Data Alliance (MSDA), acting under the umbrella of the European Charcot Foundation (ECF). The MSDA received income from a range of corporate sponsors, recently including Biogen, Bristol-Myers Squibb (formerly Celgene), Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Merck, Novartis, QMENTA, and Roche. MSIF receives income from a range of corporate sponsors, recently including Biogen, Bristol-Myers Squibb (formerly Celgene), Genzyme, Med-Day, Merck, Novartis and Roche. This work was supported by the Flemish Government (department EWI) under the Onderzoeksprogramma Artificiële Intelligentie (AI) Vlaanderen (the Flanders AI Research Programme) and the Research Foundation Flanders (Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO) for ELIXIR Belgium (I002819N), The central platform was provided by QMENTA and the computational resources used in this work were provided by Amazon. The statistical analysis was carried out at CORe, The University of Melbourne, with support from NHMRC [1129189 and 1140766]. Funding Information: Anneke van der Walt has received honoraria and unrestricted research funding from Novartis, Biogen, Roche, Merck and Sanofi. Funding Information: Hollie Schmidt works for the Accelerated Cure Project for MS (ACP), which has received grants, collaboration funding, payments for use of assets, or in-kind contributions from the following companies: EMD Serono, Sanofi/Genzyme, Biogen, Genentech, AbbVie, Octave, GlycoMinds, Pfizer, MedDay, AstraZeneca, Teva, Mallinckrodt, MSDx, Regeneron Genetics Center, BC Platforms, and Celgene. ACP has also received funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and the National MS Society (NMSS). Funding Information: Amber Salter is on the editorial board for Neurology and received research funding from the Department of Defense, National MS Society and the Consortium of MS Centers. Funding Information: Jan Hillert has received honoraria for serving on advisory boards for Biogen, Celgene, Sanofi-Genzyme, Merck KGaA, Novartis and Sandoz and speaker's fees from Biogen, Novartis, Merck KGaA, Teva and Sanofi-Genzyme, has served as principal investigator for projects, or received unrestricted research support from Biogen, Celgene, Merck KGaA, Novartis, Roche and Sanofi-Genzyme, and his MS research was funded by the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Brain foundation. Funding Information: Gilles Edan has received consulting/speaking fees and research support from Bayer, Novartis, Teva, Sanofi Genzyme, Merck Serono, Biogen Idec, and Roche. Funding Information: Robert McBurney works for the Accelerated Cure Project for MS (ACP), which has received grants, collaboration funding, payments for use of assets, or in-kind contributions from the following companies: EMD Serono, Sanofi/Genzyme, Biogen, Genentech, AbbVie, Octave, GlycoMinds, Pfizer, MedDay, AstraZeneca, Teva, Mallinckrodt, MSDx, Regeneron Genetics Center, BC Platforms, and Celgene. ACP has also received funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and the National MS Society (NMSS). RMcB. has received consulting payments from EMD Serono, which have been donated to ACP. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier B.V.

PY - 2022/10

Y1 - 2022/10

N2 - Background: Interferon-β, a disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for MS, may be associated with less severe COVID-19 in people with MS. Results: Among 5,568 patients (83.4% confirmed COVID-19), interferon-treated patients had lower risk of severe COVID-19 compared to untreated, but not to glatiramer-acetate, dimethyl-fumarate, or pooled other DMTs. Conclusions: In comparison to other DMTs, we did not find evidence of protective effects of interferon-β on the severity of COVID-19, though compared to the untreated, the course of COVID19 was milder among those on interferon-β. This study does not support the use of interferon-β as a treatment to reduce COVID-19 severity in MS.

AB - Background: Interferon-β, a disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for MS, may be associated with less severe COVID-19 in people with MS. Results: Among 5,568 patients (83.4% confirmed COVID-19), interferon-treated patients had lower risk of severe COVID-19 compared to untreated, but not to glatiramer-acetate, dimethyl-fumarate, or pooled other DMTs. Conclusions: In comparison to other DMTs, we did not find evidence of protective effects of interferon-β on the severity of COVID-19, though compared to the untreated, the course of COVID19 was milder among those on interferon-β. This study does not support the use of interferon-β as a treatment to reduce COVID-19 severity in MS.

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U2 - 10.1016/j.msard.2022.104072

DO - 10.1016/j.msard.2022.104072

M3 - Letter

C2 - 35917745

AN - SCOPUS:85135173300

SN - 2211-0348

VL - 66

JO - Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders

JF - Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders

M1 - 104072

ER -

Severity of COVID19 infection among patients with multiple sclerosis treated with interferon-β

Abstract

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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