BELCOMID is the acronym for: BELgian Cohort Study of COVID-19 in IMIDs.

Targeted Immune-Modulating Therapies (TIMT), such as biologicals, have been revolutionary for treating people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) such as psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and atopic dermatitis. This medication works by blocking several pathogenic pathways. A side effect of blocking these pathways however, is that these also contribute to the functioning of the immune system. Therefore, these types of treatment have immunocompromising effects.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the world by storm. It remains unclear what the risk and impact of COVID-19 is on patients with IMIDs. One of the concerns is that treatment of IMIDs could interfere with the humoral immune response against COVID-19.

The goal of the study is therefore to investigate the contribution of these therapies on the COVID-19 disease course and their impact on SARS-CoV-2 seroconversion rates and kinetics in these patients.

Specifically, we want to figure out whether these TIMT increase the risk of a COVID-19 infections, whether they have a protective effect against the cytokine storm (a too strong immune reaction of the body against a COVID-infection) and whether TIMT could decrease the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.

In order to answer these questions, a cross-disciplinary BELCOMID-consortium was developed between the University Hospitals of Leuven of the University Hospital of Ghent.

This research concluded that different treatment modalities for IMIDS did not seem to impact the risk of positive COVID-19 testing in our cohort. Also, no significant associations between positive COVID-19 serology and treatment type in the entire IMID cohort were found.