The peripheral blood immune cell profile in a teriflunomide-treated multiple sclerosis patient with COVID-19 pneumonia

Maria Rosa Ciardi; Maria Antonella Zingaropoli; Patrizia Pasculli; Valentina Perri; Matteo Tartaglia; Serena Valeri; Gianluca Russo; Antonella Conte; Claudio Maria Mastroianni

doi:10.1016/j.jneuroim.2020.577323

The peripheral blood immune cell profile in a teriflunomide-treated multiple sclerosis patient with COVID-19 pneumonia

J Neuroimmunol. 2020 Jul 15:346:577323. doi: 10.1016/j.jneuroim.2020.577323. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Maria Rosa Ciardi¹, Maria Antonella Zingaropoli², Patrizia Pasculli¹, Valentina Perri¹, Matteo Tartaglia³, Serena Valeri¹, Gianluca Russo¹, Antonella Conte⁴, Claudio Maria Mastroianni¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5, 00185, Rome, Italy.
² Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5, 00185, Rome, Italy. Electronic address: [email protected].
³ Department of Human Neurosciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale dell'Università, 30, 00161, Rome, Italy.
⁴ Department of Human Neurosciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale dell'Università, 30, 00161, Rome, Italy; IRCCS Neuromed, Pozzilli, (IS), Via Atinense, 18 86077, Italy.

Abstract

A teriflunomide-treated multiple sclerosis patient with COVID-19 pneumonia was hospitalized and recovered in 15 days. The immunophenotyping analysis of peripheral blood cells was performed in two time points: the first was 1 month before (pre-infection) while the second was during COVID-19 pneumonia (infection). At the infection time point, no differences in the percentages of immune activation and immunesenescence of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells were observed compared to the pre-infection time point. Our evaluation seems to confirm that teriflunomide controls T-cells immune activation and immunosenescence suggesting that teriflunomide should not be discontinued in MS patients with an active COVID-19 pneumonia.

Keywords: COVID-19; Disease-modifying therapies; Flow cytometry.