Life-Threatening COVID-19: Defective Interferons Unleash Excessive Inflammation

Qian Zhang; Paul Bastard; Alexandre Bolze; Emmanuelle Jouanguy; Shen-Ying Zhang; COVID Human Genetic Effort; Aurélie Cobat; Luigi D Notarangelo; Helen C Su; Laurent Abel; Jean-Laurent Casanova

doi:10.1016/j.medj.2020.12.001

Life-Threatening COVID-19: Defective Interferons Unleash Excessive Inflammation

Med. 2020 Dec 18;1(1):14-20. doi: 10.1016/j.medj.2020.12.001.

Authors

Qian Zhang¹, Paul Bastard^{1

2

3}, Alexandre Bolze⁴, Emmanuelle Jouanguy^{1

2

3}, Shen-Ying Zhang^{1

2

3}; COVID Human Genetic Effort; Aurélie Cobat^{2

3}, Luigi D Notarangelo⁵, Helen C Su⁵, Laurent Abel^{1

2

3}, Jean-Laurent Casanova^{1

2

3

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, Rockefeller Branch, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA.
² Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, Necker Branch, INSERM, Necker Hospital for Sick Children, Paris, France.
³ University of Paris, Imagine Institute, Paris, France.
⁴ Helix, San Mateo, CA, USA.
⁵ Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁶ Pediatric Hematology and Immunology Unit, Necker Hospital for Sick Children, AP-HP, Paris, France.
⁷ Howard Hughes Medical Institute, New York, NY, USA.

Abstract

The risk of life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia increases sharply after 65 years of age, but other epidemiological risk factors, genetic or otherwise, are modest. Various rare monogenic inborn errors of type I interferons (IFNs) underlie critical disease, and neutralizing autoantibodies against type I IFNs account for at least 10% of critical cases.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Autoantibodies
COVID-19*
Humans
Inflammation
Interferon Type I* / genetics
SARS-CoV-2

Substances

Autoantibodies
Interferon Type I

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding