Early nasal type I IFN immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is compromised in patients with autoantibodies against type I IFNs

Early nasal type I IFN immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is compromised in patients with autoantibodies against type I IFNs

Thu, 05/08/2021

Publication

Publication of CIRI in Journal of Experimental Medicine. Communication from Lyon Hospitals on August 5, 2021.

Abstract

IFN-I and IFN-III immunity in the nasal mucosa is poorly characterized during SARS-CoV-2 infection. We analyze the nasal IFN-I/III signature, namely the expression of ISGF-3–dependent IFN-stimulated genes, in mildly symptomatic COVID-19 patients and show its correlation with serum IFN-α2 levels, which peak at symptom onset and return to baseline from day 10 onward. Moreover, the nasal IFN-I/III signature correlates with the nasopharyngeal viral load and is associated with the presence of infectious viruses. By contrast, we observe low nasal IFN-I/III scores despite high nasal viral loads in a subset of critically ill COVID-19 patients, which correlates with the presence of autoantibodies (auto-Abs) against IFN-I in both blood and nasopharyngeal mucosa. In addition, functional assays in a reconstituted human airway epithelium model of SARS-CoV-2 infection confirm the role of such auto-Abs in abrogating the antiviral effects of IFN-I, but not those of IFN-III. Thus, IFN-I auto-Abs may compromise not only systemic but also local antiviral IFN-I immunity at the early stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Source: Early nasal type I IFN immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is compromised in patients with autoantibodies against type I IFNsJonathan Lopez, Marine Mommert, William Mouton, Andrés Pizzorno, Karen Brengel-Pesce, Mehdi Mezidi, Marine Villard, Bruno Lina, Jean-Christophe Richard, Jean-Baptiste Fassier, Valérie Cheynet, Blandine Padey, Victoria Duliere, Thomas Julien, Stéphane Paul, Paul Bastard, Alexandre Belot, Antonin Bal, Jean-Laurent Casanova, Manuel Rosa-Calatrava, Florence Morfin, Thierry Walzer, Sophie Trouillet-Assant. J Exp Med (2021) 218 (10).

Subject(s)