Critically ill COVID-19 patients with neutralizing autoantibodies against type I interferons have increased risk of herpesvirus disease

PLoS Biol. 2022 Jul 5;20(7):e3001709. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001709. eCollection 2022 Jul.

Abstract

Autoantibodies neutralizing the antiviral action of type I interferons (IFNs) have been associated with predisposition to severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Here, we screened for such autoantibodies in 103 critically ill COVID-19 patients in a tertiary intensive care unit (ICU) in Switzerland. Eleven patients (10.7%), but no healthy donors, had neutralizing anti-IFNα or anti-IFNα/anti-IFNω IgG in plasma/serum, but anti-IFN IgM or IgA was rare. One patient had non-neutralizing anti-IFNα IgG. Strikingly, all patients with plasma anti-IFNα IgG also had anti-IFNα IgG in tracheobronchial secretions, identifying these autoantibodies at anatomical sites relevant for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Longitudinal analyses revealed patient heterogeneity in terms of increasing, decreasing, or stable anti-IFN IgG levels throughout the length of hospitalization. Notably, presence of anti-IFN autoantibodies in this critically ill COVID-19 cohort appeared to predict herpesvirus disease (caused by herpes simplex viruses types 1 and 2 (HSV-1/-2) and/or cytomegalovirus (CMV)), which has been linked to worse clinical outcomes. Indeed, all 7 tested COVID-19 patients with anti-IFN IgG in our cohort (100%) suffered from one or more herpesviruses, and analysis revealed that these patients were more likely to experience CMV than COVID-19 patients without anti-IFN autoantibodies, even when adjusting for age, gender, and systemic steroid treatment (odds ratio (OR) 7.28, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.14 to 46.31, p = 0.036). As the IFN system deficiency caused by neutralizing anti-IFN autoantibodies likely directly and indirectly exacerbates the likelihood of latent herpesvirus reactivations in critically ill patients, early diagnosis of anti-IFN IgG could be rapidly used to inform risk-group stratification and treatment options. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04410263.

Publication types

  • Clinical Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Autoantibodies
  • COVID-19*
  • Critical Illness
  • Cytomegalovirus Infections*
  • Herpes Simplex*
  • Humans
  • Immunoglobulin G
  • Interferon Type I*
  • SARS-CoV-2

Substances

  • Autoantibodies
  • Immunoglobulin G
  • Interferon Type I

Associated data

  • ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT04410263

Grants and funding

Work in the BGH laboratory is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation through grant 31003A_182464 to BGH. IAA is supported by a research grant from the Promedica Foundation (#14851M/1). SDB has received funding from the USZ Foundation through grant USZF270808. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.