@article {Verstappene002265, author = {Gwenny M Verstappen and Liseth de Wolff and Suzanne Arends and Hella-Marie Heiermann and Yannick van Sleen and Annie Visser and Janneke H Terpstra and Dimitri A Diavatopoulos and Marieke van der Heiden and Arjan Vissink and Debbie van Baarle and Frans G M Kroese and Hendrika Bootsma}, title = {Immunogenicity and safety of COVID-19 vaccination in patients with primary Sj{\"o}gren{\textquoteright}s syndrome}, volume = {8}, number = {1}, elocation-id = {e002265}, year = {2022}, doi = {10.1136/rmdopen-2022-002265}, publisher = {BMJ Specialist Journals}, abstract = {Objectives To evaluate humoral and cellular immune responses and adverse events (AEs) after COVID-19 vaccination in patients with primary Sj{\"o}gren{\textquoteright}s syndrome (pSS) compared to healthy controls (HC), and disease activity following vaccination in patients with pSS.Methods 67 patients with pSS and 33 HC (ratio 2:1) received COVID-19 vaccinations following the Dutch vaccination programme. Patients with pSS did not use immunomodulatory drugs, except hydroxychloroquine. Anti-spike 1 receptor binding domain IgG serum antibody levels were measured 28 days after complete vaccination. AEs were collected 7 days after vaccination. In a subgroup, salivary anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and T-cell response by interferon-γ enzyme-linked immune absorbent spot was measured.Results 47 patients with pSS (70\%) and 14 HC (42\%) received BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNtech), 13 (19\%) and 5 (15\%) received ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AstraZeneca), 6 (9\%) and 8 (24\%) received mRNA-1273 (Moderna), and 1 (1\%) and 6 (18\%) received Ad.26.COV2.S (Janssen). All participants had positive anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels (\>2500 AU/mL) postvaccination. No differences in anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels were observed between patients with pSS and HC, for each vaccine type. Salivary anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies also increased, and a T-cell response was observed in patients with pSS and HC. Frequencies of systemic AEs were comparable between patients with pSS and HC (first vaccination: 34/67 (51\%) vs 16/33 (48\%), p=0.83; second: 41/66 (62\%) vs 14/25 (56\%), p=0.59). No significant worsening was observed in patient-reported and systemic disease activity, including auto-antibodies.Conclusions Patients with pSS had similar humoral and cellular immune responses as HC, suggesting COVID-19 vaccination is effective in patients with pSS. AEs were also comparable, and no increase in disease activity was seen in patients with pSS.No data are available. Currently there are no plans to share additional data beyond what is included in this article.}, URL = {https://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/8/1/e002265}, eprint = {https://rmdopen.bmj.com/content/8/1/e002265.full.pdf}, journal = {RMD Open} }