Unlocking life-threatening COVID-19 through two types of inborn errors of type I IFNs.
review · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 36719370.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1172/JCI166283 and PMC identifier 9888384.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Since 2003, rare inborn errors of human type I IFN immunity have been discovered, each underlying a few severe viral illnesses. Autoantibodies neutralizing type I IFNs due to rare inborn errors of autoimmune regulator (AIRE)-driven T cell tolerance were discovered in 2006, but not initially linked to any viral disease. These two lines of clinical investigation converged in 2020, with the discovery that inherited and/or autoimmune deficiencies of type I IFN immunity accounted for approximately 15%-20% of cases of critical COVID-19 pneumonia in unvaccinated individuals. Thus, insufficient type I IFN immunity at the onset of SARS-CoV-2 infection may be a general determinant of life-threatening COVID-19. These findings illustrate the unpredictable, but considerable, contribution of the study of rare human genetic diseases to basic biology and public health.
Medical subject headings
- COVID-19
- Interferon Type I
- Virus Diseases