NOTE: This manuscript was accepted and published in Molecular Genetics and Metabolism on October 10th. See SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-based vaccines in the Aicardi Goutières Syndrome.

Yesterday, our clinical collaborators at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia uploaded a pre-print of an article we contributed to about COVID-19 vaccines and their safety within AGS. Please note that pre-prints have not been formally peer-reviewed and should not guide health-related behavior or be reported in the press as conclusive. However, the conclusions of the authors remain; and we wanted to get this to our community as quickly as possible.

Based on experiments using blood samples from AGS patients, the authors have determined that the currently approved COVID-19 vaccines should not stimulate AGS disease activity more than other vaccine technologies. They’ve included our findings from our patient registry that suggest COVID-19 vaccination is safer than the risk involved with a live infection.

In the context of continued COVID-19 infections in the community, however, we are cautiously recommending that AGS affected individuals consider being vaccinated with one of the United States Food and Drug Administration approved mRNA vaccines, as applicable for their ages in the general population, unless individuals have documented vaccine related adverse events.

mRNA-based vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 do not stimulate interferon stimulatory gene expression in individuals affected by Aicardi Goutières Syndrome.

Asako Takanohashi, Mohamad-Gabriel Alameh, Sarah Woidill, Julia Hacker, Benjamin Davis, Guy Helman, Francesco Gavazzi, Laura Adang, Russell D'Aiello, Patrick Winters, Devon Cordova, Taibeen Khandaker, Houping Ni, Ying Tam, Paulo Lin, Drew Weissman, Justine Shults, Adeline Vanderver

bioRxiv 2022.05.18.492546; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.18.492546