Two-week break from methotrexate may boost Covid-19 vaccine effect

A two-week break from taking methotrexate after a Covid-19 booster vaccine can help improve its effectiveness, a UK trial has suggested. Analysis of immune responses in 127 participants who were randomly allocated to suspend methotrexate use for two weeks and 127 to continue using it as usual, showed such a difference that researchers stopped the trial early. At four weeks and 12 weeks after the Covid-19 jab, participants’ spike-antibody levels were more than two-fold higher in the paused methotrexate group compared with those who continued to take the drug. Reporting in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, the researcher also found a worsening of disease control at week four in those who had stopped taking methotrexate but that it had normalised by week 12. Overall, there was no impact on quality of life or general health, suggesting the approach could be useful for more than a million people in the UK who take the immune-suppressing drug for inflammatory conditions.