Key Message
Immunosuppressed patients often cannot build up good protection after a vaccination because the necessary cells of the immune system function less well or are not present at all. Rheumatism patients who are treated with rituximab have hardly any B cells. We have investigated here under which circumstances vaccination can nevertheless be successful for this group of people. It was shown that B cells maintain a crosstalk with cytotoxic T cells, which decisively influences the vaccination response of the T cells.
Translational perspective
Our data suggest that patients treated with rituximab would probably be better immunised with a vector vaccine against COVID-19 to achieve some vaccination success even in the absence of B cells.