Dr Caldera, from the University of Wisconsin, reviews results of the HERCULES study assessing immunological response to vaccines among patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Freddy Caldera, DO, is an associate professor with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, Wisconsin.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi, I'm Dr. Freddy Caldera. I'm at University of Wisconsin Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, and I'm at DDW 2023. And we presented our latest work from our HERCULES study looking at the vaccine response—specifically the cell-mediated immune response after a third dose of a COVID vaccine, how that response was sustained, and what happened after the fourth dose.

So what we found in our study as we presented as a poster, is that after a third dose, every patient with IBD, regardless of the treatment regimen, had a cell-mediated immune response. That response actually did not wane at 6 months and was not boosted by a fourth dose of a COVID vaccine.

We showed, similar to our initial findings, that those on anti-TNF therapy actually had a higher cell-mediated immune response compared to those not on anti-TNFs, which is the opposite that's been seen with some of the humeral antibody work, and should provide reassurance to providers that their patients, even if they have lower antibodies, they do have a higher cell-mediated immune response in some protection. This is particularly important with the newest recommendation from the ACIP calling for a second booster dose just recently. So we're hoping to have this in publication soon so that providers can reassure their patients that their treatment regimens are not impacting their ability to mount responses to the vaccine.