Multiple sclerosis and optic neuritis triggered by COVID-19 mRNA

Background

In December 2019, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic; an unprecedented health crisis has rocked the world. Enormous efforts by governments, the pharmaceutical industry, and health professionals, including a new mRNA vaccine technology against SARS-CoV-2, have been massively employed to control the COVID-19 pandemic. The vaccine's primary mechanism is based on S glycoprotein, the leading viral surface antigen, which induces protective neutralizing antibodies.

Case presentation

This project aims to present two cases of demyelinating syndromes in previously asymptomatic patients. The triggering factor in both cases was vaccination against COVID-19 with mRNA vaccines.

Case Report

The first case is a young female, 25 years old, previously asymptomatic, one week after the ChAdOx1 Vaccine developed right hemiparesis. Brain MRI and MRI of the spinal cord demonstrated multiple hyperintense lesions, acute and chronic. The second case is an 8-year-old Caucasian male; 12 days after the double dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the patient complained of bilateral visual blurring. The patient was pulsed with methylprednisolone one g/day/5 days with complete recovery.

Conclusion

Rarely can vaccines trigger multiple sclerosis or optic neuritis. This report demonstrated two demyelinating syndromes triggered by the m-RNA COVID-19 vaccine.