Global Excellence in Inflammatory Eye Diseases: Europe

Methods: Demographic, clinical and treatment-related data of herpetic anterior uveitis cases was collected at five tertiary eye hospitals between January 2021 and June 2022. A retrospective database review at one of the centers comparing the number of cases of herpetic eye disease before and after the introduction of COVID-19 vaccination was performed as well.

Results: Twenty-four patients (9 female, 15 male) with a mean age of 54 years (range 28–83 years) were diagnosed with herpetic uveitis, reporting an onset of symptoms 3–42 days after the first, second or third dose of COVID-19 vaccination. Median time between vaccination and onset of herpetic eye disease was 10 days (mean 12.7 ± 10.15 days) days. The administered vaccines were BNT162b2, mRNA-1273, BBIBP-CorV and Ad26.COV2.S. The cases included 11 HSV, 10 VZV and 1 CMV anterior uveitis, 2 were not further specified. There was an equal number of first episodes (n = 12, 50%) and recurrent episodes (n = 12, 50%). Response to established regimens was generally good. The retrospective database review revealed the exact same incidence of herpetic uveitis during the pandemic and ongoing vaccination compared to prior SARS-CoV-2.

Conclusion: This report includes 24 cases of herpetic anterior uveitis in a temporal relationship to various COVID-19 vaccines. This study supports the potential risk of herpetic eye disease following COVID-19 vaccines, but proof of a direct, causal relationship is missing.

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4 citations

Case Report

03 July 2023

Case Report: Cytomegalovirus-specific T-lymphocyte infusion for resistant cytomegalovirus retinitis

Tal Saban

, 5 more and

Michal Kramer

1,099 views

0 citations

Original Research

02 June 2023

Risk factors for the development of macular edema in children with uveitis

Ronit Friling

, 4 more and

Michal Kramer

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0 citations

Mini Review

18 April 2023

CAR-Treg cell therapies and their future potential in treating ocular autoimmune conditions

Alan R. Abraham

, 3 more and

Andrew D. Dick

Tregs are activated through their antigen specific TCR. Engagement with antigen presenting cells (APCs) via the antigen specific MHC-peptide and Treg TCR interaction leads to downregulation of APC immune stimulatory activity and inflammatory cytokine production. This induces a tolerogenic phenotype in APCs suppressing Teffector cell activity. Once activated Tregs can regulate immune responses through both contact and non-contact mediated methods which themselves are not antigen specific, leading to bystander suppression of effector T-cells of different TCR specificity, and promoting infectious tolerance with the conversion of Teffector cells to Tregs. Adapted from (11).

Ophthalmic autoimmune and autoinflammatory conditions cause significant visual morbidity and require complex medical treatment complicated by significant side effects and lack of specificity. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) have key roles in immune homeostasis and in the resolution of immune responses. Polyclonal Treg therapy has shown efficacy in treating autoimmune disease. Genetic engineering approaches to produce antigen-specific Treg therapy has the potential for enhanced treatment responses and fewer systemic side effects. Cell therapy using chimeric antigen receptor modified T cell (CAR-T) therapy, has had significant success in treating haematological malignancies. By modifying Tregs specifically, a CAR-Treg approach has been efficacious in preclinical models of autoimmune conditions leading to current phase 1-2 clinical trials. This review summarises CAR structure and design, Treg cellular biology, developments in CAR-Treg therapies, and discusses future strategies to apply CAR-Treg therapy in the treatment of ophthalmic conditions.

5,869 views

10 citations