Recovery from COVID-19 in a B-cell-depleted multiple sclerosis patient
Open accessAbstract
Approximately 200,000 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients worldwide receive B-cell-depleting immunotherapy with rituximab (anti-CD20), which eliminates the ability to generate an antibody response to new infections. As severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-specific antibodies might help viral clearance, these patients could be at risk of severe complications if infected. Here, we report on an MS patient who had received rituximab for ~3 years. The patient was examined 5 days before the onset of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms and was admitted to the hospital 2 days after. She recovered 14 days after symptom onset despite having a 0% B lymphocyte count and not developing SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Some individuals with inherited or treatment-related B cell deficiencies who did not produce neutralizing antibodies still recovered from COVID-19.
“patients who failed to develop neutralizing antibodies, in some cases because of inherited or treatment-induced B cell deficiencies, have recovered from COVID-19 (Soresina et al., 2020; Wu et al., 2020; Wurm et al., 2020).”
From Rapid induction of antigen-specific CD4+ T cells is associated with coordinated humoral and cellular immunity to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination (2021) · cites this paper as Wurm et al., 2020
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Wu, Z., & McGoogan, J. M. (2020) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.2020.2648 · Cited by 17,016 · see citing works
The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2
Andersen, K. G., Rambaut, A., Lipkin, W. I., Holmes, E. C., & Garry, R. F. (2020) · Nature Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41591-020-0820-9 · Cited by 5,081 · see citing works
The trinity of COVID-19: immunity, inflammation and intervention
Tay, M. Z., Poh, C. M., Rénia, L., MacAry, P. A., & Ng, L. F. P. (2020) · Nature Reviews Immunology · doi:10.1038/s41577-020-0311-8 · Cited by 4,360 · see citing works
Okba, N. M. A., Müller, M. A., Li, W., Wang, C., GeurtsvanKessel, C. H., Corman, V. M., Lamers, M. M., Sikkema, R. S., de Bruin, E., Chandler, F. D., et al. (2020) · Emerging Infectious Diseases · doi:10.3201/eid2607.200841 · Cited by 1,614 · see citing works
Liu, L., Wei, Q., Lin, Q., Fang, J., Wang, H., Kwok, H., Tang, H., Nishiura, K., Peng, J., Tan, Z., et al. (2019) · JCI Insight · doi:10.1172/jci.insight.123158 · Cited by 830 · see citing works
Cytokine-producing B lymphocytes-key regulators of immunity
Lund, F. E. (2008) · Current Opinion in Immunology · doi:10.1016/j.coi.2008.03.003 · Cited by 556 · see citing works
The potential danger of suboptimal antibody responses in COVID-19
Iwasaki, A., & Yang, Y.-X. (2020) · Nature reviews. Immunology · doi:10.1038/s41577-020-0321-6 · Cited by 510 · see citing works
Two X-linked agammaglobulinemia patients develop pneumonia as COVID-19 manifestation but recover
Soresina, A., Moratto, D., Chiarini, M., Paolillo, C., Baresi, G., Focà, E., Bezzi, M., Baronio, B., Giacomelli, M., & Badolato, R. (2020) · Pediatric Allergy and Immunology · doi:10.1111/pai.13263 · Cited by 327 · see citing works
Viral Kinetics and Antibody Responses in Patients with COVID-19Preprint
Tan, W., Lu, Y., Zhang, J., Wang, J., Dan, Y., Tan, Z., He, X., Qian, C., Sun, Q., Hu, Q., et al. (2020) · medRxiv · doi:10.1101/2020.03.24.20042382 · Cited by 303 · see citing works
Treating multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic
Brownlee, W. J., BOURDETTE, D. N., Broadley, S., et al. (2020) · Neurology · doi:10.1212/wnl.0000000000009507 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
COVID-19 in a MS patient treated with ocrelizumab: does immunosuppression have a protective role?
Novi, G., Mikulska, M., Briano, F., Toscanini, F., Tazza, F., Uccelli, A., & Inglese, M. (2020) · Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.msard.2020.102120 · Cited by 162 · see citing works
Safavi, F., Nourbakhsh, B., & Azimi, A. R. (2020) · Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.msard.2020.102195 · Cited by 140 · see citing works
Hughes, R. A., Pedotti, R., & Koendgen, H. (2020) · Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.msard.2020.102192 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Painter, M. M., Mathew, D., Goel, R. R., Apostolidis, S. A., Pattekar, A., Kuthuru, O., Baxter, A. E., Herati, R. S., Oldridge, D. A., Gouma, S., et al. (2021) · Immunity · doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2021.08.001 · Cited by 499 · see citing works
- Authors
- Wurm, H., Attfield, K., Iversen, A. K., Gold, R., Fugger, L., & Haghikia, A.
- Affiliations
- St. Josef-Hospital (DE)
- Oxford Centre for Neuroinflammation, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- John Radcliffe Hospital (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Fugger, Lars
- Venue
- Multiple Sclerosis Journal
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2020-08-07
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1261-1264
- ISSN
- 1352-4585 (ISSN-L)
- 1477-0970
- PMC
- PMC7502978
- OpenAlex
- W3047788110
- Cited by
- 36
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 8
- FWCI
- 1.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Multiple Sclerosis Journal (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- teva pharmaceutical industries
- Bayer
- Merck Serono
- Novartis
- Genzyme
- Biogen
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Multiple Sclerosis Research Studies
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, multiple sclerosis, rituximab, B-cell depletion, anti-CD20 therapy, antibody response, anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG, B lymphocyte count, viral clearance, immunosuppression
- MeSH terms
- Rituximab, Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, B-Lymphocytes, Female, Humans, Immunity, Cellular, Killer Cells, Natural, Middle Aged, Pneumonia, Viral, CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes, CD4-CD8 Ratio, Coronavirus Infections, Disease Progression, Lymphocyte Count, Multiple Sclerosis, Chronic Progressive, Pandemics
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
