Tocilizumab-treated convalescent COVID-19 patients retain the cross-neutralization potential against SARS-CoV-2 variants

Camille Chauvin (1) , Laurine Levillayer (1) , Mathilde Roumier (2) , Hubert Nielly (3) , Claude Roth (1) , Anupama Karnam (4) , Srinivasa Reddy Bonam (4) , Anne Bourgarit (5, 6, 7) , Clément Dubost (3, 8) , Aurore Bousquet (3) , Sébastien Le Burel (3) , Raphaële Mestiri (3) , Damien Sene (9, 10) , Joris Galland (9, 10) , Marc Vasse (2, 11) , Matthieu Groh (2) , Mathilde Le Marchand (2) , Camille Vassord-Dang (2) , Jean-François Gautier (4, 9) , Nhan Pham-Thi (12) , Christiane Verny (12) , Bruno Pitard (13) , Cyril Planchais (14) , Hugo Mouquet (14) , Richard E. Paul (1) , Etienne Simon-Loriere (15) , Jagadeesh Bayry (4, 16) , Laurent Gilardin (4, 6, 5) , Anavaj Sakuntabhai (1, 17)

1 Génétique fonctionnelle des maladies infectieuses - Functional Genetics of Infectious Diseases
2 Hôpital Foch [Suresnes]
3 HIA Begin - Hôpital d'Instruction des Armées Begin [Saint-Mandé, France]
4 CRC (UMR_S_1138 / U1138) - Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers
5 Hôpital Jean Verdier [AP-HP]
6 Université Sorbonne Paris Nord
7 CIMI - Centre d'Immunologie et des Maladies Infectieuses
8 CB - CB - Centre Borelli - UMR 9010
9 Hôpital Lariboisière-Fernand-Widal [APHP]
10 UPCité - Université Paris Cité
11 HITH - U1176 Inserm - CHU Bicêtre - Hémostase, Inflammation, Thrombose
12 IRBA - Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées [Brétigny-sur-Orge]
13 INCIT - Immunology and New Concepts in ImmunoTherapy
14 Immunologie humorale - Humoral Immunology
15 Génomique évolutive des virus à ARN - Evolutionary genomics of RNA viruses
16 ITT Palakkad - Indian Institut of Technology [Palakkad]
17 UTokyo - The University of Tokyo

Although tocilizumab treatment in severe and critical coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients has proven its efficacy at the clinical level, there is little evidence supporting the effect of short-term use of interleukin-6 receptor blocking therapy on the B cell sub-populations and the cross-neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 variants in convalescent COVID-19 patients. We performed immunological profiling of 69 tocilizumab-treated and non-treated convalescent COVID-19 patients in total. We observed that SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG1 titers depended on disease severity but not on tocilizumab treatment. The plasma of both treated and non-treated patients infected with the ancestral variant exhibit strong neutralizing activity against the ancestral virus and the Alpha, Beta, and Delta variants of SARS-CoV-2, whereas the Gamma and Omicron viruses were less sensitive to seroneutralization. Overall, we observed that, despite the clinical benefits of short-term tocilizumab therapy in modifying the cytokine storm associated with COVID-19 infections, there were no modifications in the robustness of B cell and IgG responses to Spike antigens.

Keywords: treatment; Health sciences; Immunology; Virology

Domains: Infectious diseases; Immunotherapy; Emerging diseases

Camille Chauvin, Laurine Levillayer, Mathilde Roumier, Hubert Nielly, Claude Roth, et al.. Tocilizumab-treated convalescent COVID-19 patients retain the cross-neutralization potential against SARS-CoV-2 variants. iScience, 2023, 26 (3), pp.106124. ⟨10.1016/j.isci.2023.106124⟩. ⟨hal-04090334⟩